Lost And Found
by KrysSaiyan
Summary: A tale of what it really means to be twisted, what it means to be saved, and what strength can do. Saints and Sinners mean nothing in the face of terror and retribution. But Fallen Angels can never rise again. OC warning. Revamp of early chapters possible
1. Meeting and Nightmares

Alright, I've decided to put this back up! Only this time, it will be completely different than the first one. Well, sort of. The basic idea is the same, just things like how she's found and such. The same, but different. That doesn't make sense, but oh well. And everyone who reads this better review!

Summary: The Z fighters find a little 5-year old Saiyan girl. What else can I say?

Just to warn all you people looking for a romance fic, this is NOT it! I will not have my OC falling in love with Gohan, Goten, Goku, Vegeta, or Trunks, or vice versa! So if you want to read something like that, go find a different story, there are plenty of them out there.

Chapter One: Meetings and Nightmares

A girl who looked about 5 years old stumbled through bushes and undergrowth in a forest. Her clothes, a jumpsuit with sandals, were torn and dirty. You couldn't even tell what color the jumpsuit was, though it was white originally. 

She was shaking and cold, and she looked like she could barely stand up. A once-fluffy tail hung limply behind her and it was covered in mud. It had rained the night before, and she couldn't find shelter. 

She hadn't eaten anything in days. She didn't know how to find any food on her own. She had never been in a forest before, and had rarely ever been outside even. 

She smelled something ahead of her and went towards it. It smelled strange, she had never smelled it before, and she thought maybe it was _real_ food. She drooled at the thought and hurried towards it. Her tail perked up a little and started wagging a little as she crashed through the vegetation. All other thoughts were pushed aside to make room for one dominating instinct: to find food. (A/N: Nothing gets between a Saiyan and food. Nothing.) Her energy level went up from desperation. If she didn't get something to eat soon, she probably wouldn't make it. 

She finally got to the source of the smell and stopped. It wasn't food, it was a person! More than one person actually; there were two. Her tail drooped in disappointment and she tried to sneak back into the cover of the forest vegetation. 

They were in a clearing. They both had black hair, in exactly the same hairstyle (A/N: If you can't guess who they are…) She tried to sneak quietly back into the forest; however, the wild dash through the woods had taken its toll. She was panting heavily and, of course, the other two people heard her and turned to look at her. 

"Hey there, where did you come from?" the larger one asked. She panicked and started to back away, a terrified look in her eyes. He would take her back to the building! She got very dizzy, the stress and hunger taking its toll. The world started to swirl together and she stumbled. 

"Dad, I think there's something wrong with her!" She couldn't see who was talking. She swayed and finally dropped to the ground, unconscious.

~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~. ~.

She groaned and painfully opened her eyes. She had a headache and her eyes hurt because of it. Staring at the ceiling for a moment, she wondered where she was and how she got there. It came back slowly and she groaned again. Great, just great. Somebody thought she was cute and decided to take her home with them. 

She sighed. She'd think of some way to escape later. Her head still hurt. She carefully moved her head to one side and looked around. She was in a room, that had been decided  earlier. It was plain; white, unpainted walls and fluorescent lights. She was in a bed. 

She sat up and suddenly wished she hadn't. Her ears started ringing and her eyes watered. The pain was almost unbearable. She whimpered and brought her hands up to her head instinctively. After a few moments, the pain subsided and her whimpering stopped. 

She sighed in relief and decided that if she was going to leave, now was probably the best chance she had. Carefully, she moved her legs over the side of the bed facing the door and slowly lowered herself down to the floor. She lost her balance for a moment and her tail unwrapped itself from around her waist to help her stay upright. She took a couple unsteady steps when the door opened.

"Oh, so you're finally awake!" a woman with blue hair (A/N: betcha can't guess who this is! Oh, and sorry for any OOC-ness. Which will probably be all the time…) said as she stepped into the room. 

"I didn't think you'd be awake this soon, much less walking! And what are you doing up? You hit your head pretty hard from what I heard, so you get back in that bed! Really, what is it with Saiyans…" The woman started muttering to herself while the girl just stood there. She didn't know what this woman wanted from her, but she knew that she hated being ordered around! She looked at the wide-open door and got the idea in her head that she could outrun this woman, even with her mind-splitting headache. She made a dash for the doorway, but the woman grabbed her before she got through.

"And just where do you think you're going?" she asked. Her head hurt more than ever, but that just made her angrier and more desperate to escape. She thrashed around in the woman's arms and bit her arm. The woman screamed and dropped her, cradling her bitten arm. The girl took two steps and dropped onto the floor, overcome by pain. She curled up into a ball with her hands on her head, crying. It hurt so much! She blacked out once again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

"No! I don't wanna! Stop it!!" 

"You'll do as you're told, ungrateful brat!" 

"Someone get the tranquilizer!" 

"No more tests! Please! I don't like them, they hurt!" 

"Shut up!!" 

"I've got the tranquilizer right here."

"Good! Hurry up and inject it, she's going to get violent soon." 

"Nooooo!! Help, somebody! Somebody! Help…"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"No…nn…help…" 

"Hey, kid, wake up." 

She snapped her eyes open at the sound of the voice and screamed. She flailed her arms around in a panic and smacked the person who woke her up in the face.

"Hey! Watch it!" 

She stopped flailing about and looked around, still shaking from the nightmare. There were people all around her, staring. The person she had hit was a boy with purple hair. He was rubbing the spot where she had hit him and halfway glaring at her for causing the injury. 

She looked around at the other people. It was a small group, most with black hair, she noted.

"Are you all right?" the boy from the clearing asked her. 

She scooted away from the group of people, although it wasn't far because she was still on the bed. She growled as threateningly as she could and bared her teeth. She had hoped that it would make them back off so she would have room to make another escape attempt, seeing as her headache seemed to be gone. Instead, the growling seemed to have the opposite effect. They smiled at her, or at least smirked, like it was the cutest thing they had ever seen. 

A little girl with blue hair and another girl with black hair ran into the room. 

"Is she awake now mommy?" the blue-haired one asked. Kris scooted further away from everyone. She had had only one previous experience with children around her age, and it hadn't been pleasant. Best to stay away for now… 

"Calm down, Bra," the woman from earlier said to the little girl, who was jumping up and down in excitement. 

"What's your name?" the man from the clearing asked her. She hesitated. They wouldn't want her ID number, so she thought a name she had always called herself would work. 

"Kris," she replied. (A/N: That was… unnecessary. But I put it in anyway. *shakes head * I'm weird…) The man smiled. 

"That's a nice name. My name's Goku, that's Krillin, and this is Goten, and Trunks, and…" and the introductions continued. 

"You've been unconscious for 2 days," Krillin stated after the introductions had been made. Kris blinked in surprise. Two days? And they hadn't turned her in or done tests on her? She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at them. If they hadn't, they must want something else from her. She just wasn't sure what. 

"Hi Kris!" Bra enthusiastically greeted Kris, jumping up onto the bed, and Pan following suite. Kris jumped in surprise and scooted further away. She was uncomfortable around people, especially when they stared. Pan looked at her strangely. 

"Why don't you talk much?" she inquired. Kris glared at her, annoyed suddenly.

"'Cause I don't want to." She answered shortly.

"Oh." There was silence for a second. 

"Hey," Chi-Chi said, trying to break the rather uncomfortable silence. "I have an idea. Why don't we all have dinner now? I'm sure you're hungry, what with being asleep for two whole days, and besides, you Saiyans are always hungry anyway." 

"Yeah! Dinner!" Goten exclaimed. 

"Dinner will probably be ready in thirty minutes, with all of the cooking droids working," Bulma said. "But first, you're still all dirty." She added, looking at Kris. "You need to take a bath before you can eat." 

Kris glared and crossed her arms over the chest. 

"I don't want to take a bath." She said, even though she was a little unsure of what all a "bath" would entail. 

"Well, you have to," Chi-Chi said. "Now come on. I'll help you clean up. Do you think you can handle dinner on your own Bulma?" 

Bulma nodded and left the room. (A/N: Just to let you know, they're in Capsule Corp. Sorry I didn't mention it earlier.) 

Kris still just sat in the bed with her arms crossed defiantly. Chi-Chi turned back to her with her hands on her hips. The males quickly left the room; they recognized the warning signs of one of Chi-Chi's rants coming on. 

"You are going to take a bath." She commanded. 

"No." Kris chirped defiantly. Bra and Pan cringed and slowly crept out of the room as well. 

"She's gonna get it," Pan whispered to Bra. Bra nodded in silent agreement. 

"Hey!! Put me down! Argh! Let go!" Chi-Chi walked out of the room with Kris tucked under her arm and headed toward the bathroom, Kris protesting and struggling all the while. 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Kris sat gloomily at the couch in the living room. Her hair was still damp, and her tail was too, which bothered her even more. She kept waving it around in an attempt to dry it more quickly. 

She watched Trunks beat Goten once again at whatever video game they were playing while they were waiting for dinner to be ready. Bra came up to her and hopped up onto the couch next to her. Kris pretended to ignore her. 

"Um, Kris? Could I ask you something?" Bra asked. Kris turned her head to look at her. 

"What?" she asked. 

"Well, I was wondering, where are your mommy and daddy? I mean, they must be really worried about you, you've been gone for at least two days," Kris looked back at the video game and replied in a dull voice. 

"I don't know where they are. Some people found me in a desert. They took care of me, I guess." 

"Oh," Bra said. She was about to say something else, but was interrupted when one of the cook droids rolled into the room and announced that dinner was ready. There was a stampede of hungry Saiyans going into the kitchen. 

Kris sat at the couch for a moment, wondering what happened, then ran as fast as she could after them. She stared, drooling, at the mountain of food on the table, which was creaking under the weight of it all. The non-Saiyans had already gotten their share of the food and the Saiyans had already begun digging into the rest. 

Kris practically leapt into an empty chair and started chowing down. She had never had food this good before! Mostly she got vitamins and pills with water, or sometimes milk if she behaved herself. Once she got some candy, but that had been a long time ago. But not chicken and rice, noodles, and… she couldn't even think about what she eating! It was all so good! She stuffed herself. 

After dinner, everyone went into the living room to watch some movie. The curiousity about the new Saiyan had lured them there in the first place, but now it had turned into a get-together of sorts. 

They settled down onto various couches and chairs in front of the big screen television, and the movie started relatively peacefully, except for a couple fights over popcorn and soda, neither of which lasted any longer than 5 minutes into the movie.

Kris had seen a couple movies before, but they had been animated, not live-action. One of the scientists in the compound she had been in before had brought them in, along with a small television and VCR. Kris had liked that particular scientist, he was nice to her. But that was before- she cut off that thought abruptly. She wouldn't think about it right now. 

The movie was okay, but she didn't really like it. She was bored, and apparently so were the other children. Trunks and Goten were throwing popcorn at each other, Pan was asleep, snuggled in between Gohan and Videl, and Bra was also asleep, curled up next to Bulma. 

Kris felt like crying suddenly, and turned away from the rest of the group. She was lonely, though she wouldn't admit it, and she wished she could fall asleep next to her parents like they were doing. She felt tears spring to her eyes and quickly turned back to the movie. She had been scolded when she cried before; crying showed weakness, and if she was weak, they would get rid of her. They'd leave her out in the middle of a city by herself, and people would yell and throw things at her, and… she felt tears streaming down her face and she wiped them away as best as she could. After awhile she yawned and curled up into a ball on the chair she was sitting in. Her eyes slowly shut and she fell asleep. 

About twenty minutes later, the movie ended. The guests said their goodbyes and left to their own respective houses. Trunks said he wasn't going to bed just yet, and Bulma carried Bra to her room and put her to bed, but not before ordering Vegeta to put Kris in one of the guest rooms. He muttered something about the brat (meaning Trunks) being able to do it, but obeyed anyway. 

He picked Kris up out of the chair and carried her to a guest room. Kris snuggled up next to him in her sleep and purred. Vegeta looked down at her questioningly. She reminded him of someone… he shook his head and kept walking down the hall. She couldn't be related to anyone he had known on Planet Vegeta. Until a few days ago, he had thought that himself and Kakarot were the only surviving full blooded Saiyans. The chances of him knowing this little girl were one in a million. (A/N: That was way too predictable. I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. Bad me.) 

He put her into the bed in the guest room and was about to leave the room when he heard a whimper. He turned his head and saw Kris twitching in her sleep and whimpering. (A/N: You know, like dogs do when they're dreaming.) 

He snorted and turned to leave again when he heard something else. 

"Mommy…" He glanced quizzically at her. She was dreaming about her mother? Then she remembered her parents? He was jerked out of his thoughts by a louder whimper. Kris was crying and started to thrash around in her sleep. 

Vegeta frowned. If she didn't stop, she'd probably fall out of the bed and hurt herself. Then, he'd get blamed for it somehow and he'd be sleeping on the couch for a few days. (A/N: * giggles * He is so whipped….) 

He went back over to the bed and shook Kris slightly to wake her up. She woke with a gasp. Her eyes were huge and the pupils dilated. She took a couple ragged breaths, and then scrunched her eyes shut and screamed like the world was ending. Vegeta winced and covered her mouth with his hand. Kris thrashed around, still screaming and crying. 

'Damn!' Vegeta thought. 'The whole freaking building probably heard that!' And, surprisingly enough, Trunks burst into the room. 

"What's going on? Who got killed?" he asked, looking frantically around for anything out of the ordinary. 

"No one," Vegeta responded. "The brat had a nightmare and when she woke up she started screaming." 

Kris had stopped thrashing around and just sat there amongst the rumpled bed sheets and sobbed. Vegeta removed his hand from over her mouth and stepped back. Kris curled up into a ball and continued sobbing. She didn't care if anyone was watching her, she just cried and didn't think. 

She had had the same dream before, but she tried not to think about that either. She tried not to think about a lot of things, but when she slept, they came rushing back at her. 

Trunks came over to the bed and sat down next to her. He placed a hand on her back and tried to comfort her. 

"Hey, it's all right," he said as he rubbed her back. 

"No it's not!" she sobbed and curled into an even tighter ball. She couldn't stop crying, no matter how hard she tried. No, she wasn't even trying to stop crying. The tears rolled down her face freely. Just then Bulma walked into the room. 

"I heard screams," she said. "What happened?" She noticed Kris's crying. "Kris? Kris, what's wrong?" She came over to the bed and Trunks backed off. He wasn't calming her down, but maybe his mother could. 

"She had a nightmare," Trunks said. Bulma sat down on the bed, put Kris in her lap, and stroked her hair. 

"Shh, shh, it's alright. It was just a nightmare… you're alright…" she said in soothing tones. Kris's sobs were quieting down into hiccups now. After a minute or so, she had stopped crying altogether, and was merely sniffling.

"Are you okay now? All through crying?" Bulma asked. Kris nodded silently. 

"Alright then. Let's go clean your face up." She picked Kris up, went into the adjacent bathroom and turned on the hot water in the sink. She took a washcloth and started wiping Kris's face. 

Trunks left the room, going to bed. After all, he still had school to go to in the morning, and he figured his mom could handle it. However, Vegeta stayed, watching from the doorway to the bathroom as Bulma cleaned Kris's face off. 

Bulma was trying to find out what the nightmare had been about, unsuccessfully. Kris kept her mouth tightly shut, and wouldn't answer Bulma's questions. 

"Come on Kris, you can tell me. I won't tell anyone about it, and Vegeta promises not to tell either, right Vegeta?" Bulma looked to Vegeta for support. 

He leaned against the doorframe and simply said "Her mother." 

"What?" Bulma asked. 

"She was dreaming about her mother. I heard her talk in her sleep." He replied. Kris stiffened up and stared straight ahead into the mirror above the sink. This did not go unnoticed by either of them. 

"Kris?" Bulma said quietly. "Is that true? You were dreaming about your mom?" 

Kris shuddered and looked away. She didn't say anything, and she could feel tears beginning to form in her eyes, even though she was trying hard not to cry again. Bulma hugged her. 

"You can tell us about it Kris. It's better to let it all out. You'll feel better afterwards, I promise." She told Kris as she hugged her. Kris broke down and started crying again, though nowhere near as loudly as before. She hugged Bulma back and mumbled out what had happened in her dream as best she could while burying her face in Bulma's shoulder. 

"I… I'm a little baby in the dream. A-a-and my mommy's there, she's smiling at me and she picks me up. Then, there's another part of the dream. My mommy's carrying me, and she's running, and… and she carries me to a place that has a bunch of round things, with windows in them. I think maybe they were spaceships or somethin'. A-and then, she opens one, and she puts me in this seat thingie, and…s-she takes this thing off of her head, it was sorta over her ear, and it's all blue over her eye. A glass thing, I think. And she takes this necklace off, and she puts them next to me on the seat." 

Kris stops to rub her eyes, then keeps going. 

"Then there are these voices, and my mommy looks… looks scared and… s-s-she k-kisses me on the head, and closes the door, but I can still see outta the little window in the door. And my mommy turns around when these weird looking people come, and the round thing I'm in starts to shake…" 

Tears are streaming down her face again and she's trembling, but she still tries to relay her dream/memory to them. 

"A-a-and th-they k-…. they k-..k… _kill_ my mommy! They shot this bright glowy thing at her and she.. she…" 

She choked, unable to continue with that part.

"The… the thing I'm in, it starts moving, and everything gets smaller, 'cause I'm moving away from it, and I can see the whole planet!"

Her eyes widened temporarily to emphasis the awe at being able to see an entire planet. Abruptly her mood went back from being astonished to scared and sad.

"But then there's this bright light… and everything starts shaking, and it gets really cold and then everything is all dark and there's these people screaming in my head…"

Kris clutched at Bulma's shirt and fairly howled in sorrow. Bulma just held her while she cried, slightly in shock. Little kids shouldn't have dreams like that! And even if it wasn't a dream, but a memory instead, which she suspected it to be, she shouldn't be able to remember that! First off, she had been an infant when it happened, and secondly, the planet had blown up some 30 years ago! If what Kris had sobbed out was in fact what happened, she should be at least 30 years old by now! 

Vegeta, meanwhile, was still leaning against the doorframe, his face a mask of indifference. However, behind that façade, he was confused. Why would the child's mother go to such lengths to send her brat to some backwater planet like Earth without an assignment? Wouldn't it have been easier to just have the girl assigned there to assist Kakkarot in purging the planet? And why the hell was the brat's mother killed? Penalties weren't _that_ harsh for stealing a space pod, and even if they were, no one would have gotten there _before the pod was even launched_!

Kris's sobs and howls had quieted down over a space of 3 minutes; eventually settling down into sniffles and whimpers. Bulma sat on the tile floor of the bathroom, hugging her and trying to comfort the poor Saiyan girl as best as she could. It worked, and after a little while, Kris had cried herself to sleep, still clinging to Bulma's shirt. 

Bulma picked her up, wiped her face off again, and carried her back to the bed. She tucked her in and ruffled her hair affectionately before leaving the room, Vegeta following, and closed the door quietly. 

Alright, did you guys like it, hate it, what? Should I give up fan fiction writing and stick to poetry, or should I continue? If I do continue, it'll be awhile before the next chapter. I have school to dedicate every fiber of my being to right now. At least if I want that Gameboy Advance for Christmas. The next chapter will, hopefully, be more light-hearted than this angst-ridden one. Hopefully. Yes, this is my first fan fiction (sort of), but it's better than some I've seen, so give me a little credit for using spell check! Although that thing is really annoying. It insists that 'Saiyan' means 'Asian'. 

You see that little button right below this, the one that says 'Go'? Click it and leave a review, even if you hated this story and think I should be shot.


	2. Breakfast and Shopping

* throws confetti in the air * I got a review!!! Thank you for reviewing Midnight Shadow! As for the rest of you out there, review or I'll sick teenage-Kris on you!

Teenage-Kris: * grins evilly *

So review already!!

Chapter 2: Breakfast and Shopping

(A/N: my happy chapter, I think)

"Wake up wake up wake up!! Breakfast is ready! Come on, get up!" 

Kris woke up to a small hyperactive blue demi-saiyan jumping up and down on her bed. She yawned and stretched and sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. 

"Uh?" she muttered and blinked at the blurry figure that had now stopped jumping around. 

"Breakfast is ready, and my daddy said he wouldn't wait for you to get up before he started eating, even though mommy said he'd get the couch if he didn't, so hurry up and get outta bed, sleepy!" Bra clarified. 

Kris perked up at the mention of food and after a moment, it registered in her brain that if she didn't get out of the bed and to the kitchen, she wouldn't get any of it. She scrambled out from under the covers, or at least tried to. She ended up getting hopelessly tangled in them, and while she was busy thrashing around, biting and clawing at them, she failed to notice how close she was to the edge of the bed. 

"Eeeee!!"

THUMP!

Bra giggled, crawled over to the edge of the bed Kris had fallen over, and peered down at the other Saiyan girl, who was still fighting a losing battle with the evil bed sheets from hell. Bra jumped down and proceeded to help her "friend" untangle herself. Kris stopped struggling and watched as Bra untied the knots that had somehow managed to form in the bed coverings. Why would Bra help her? No one had ever helped her before; they usually stood behind a glass wall and wrote things in pads of paper. So why would anyone want to help her now? 

She snapped back to reality when Bra proclaimed "There! It's off." proudly. Kris stepped away from the sheets that now lay on the floor and smiled slightly in thanks at Bra, who grinned back, grabbed Kris's arm and almost dragged her out of the room and to the kitchen. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

After breakfast, where Kris had thoroughly stuffed herself on pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, orange juice, and every other breakfast food imaginable, Vegeta had left to train in the GR, Trunks and Bra left for school, and Kris had decided that these people weren't really that bad after all. Bulma decided, after dropping Bra off at her school, that Kris needed new clothes. So, they drove to the nearest mall for a shopping spree. Of course, knowing Bulma's driving habits, 'drove' isn't really the correct word. There is no word with which to describe the horror of being in a car with Bulma Briefs at the wheel. Well, after about five minutes and 15 demolished mailboxes, 2 near-misses with pedestrians, and the grazing of a street light pole later, Bulma slowed down to only 20 miles over the speed limit and had stopped trying to get past all the other cars on the road. 

Somehow, she managed to turn her head and look at Kris without hitting anything else. Kris had a death grip on her seat and was staring with huge eyes aimed at the windshield. (A/N: Remember, she's never been in a car before.) Bulma stifled a laugh at the sight and glanced back at the road long enough to avoid the car in front of her, which was going at an unbelievingly slow speed (A/N: The speed limit…) After that, she turned back to Kris, a serious look on her face. 

"Kris," she said. Kris slowly brought her gaze from what she had decided was a black river of near-death to Bulma's serious face. She had to suppress the urge to tear out of the car and run far away. She was going to take her back to the compound! Her grip tightened on the seat, and if she had had fingernails, they would've pierced the cushion. She felt every muscle in her body tense up. She wouldn't go back, no matter what! She had momentarily forgotten everything that had happened in the last two days, right down to her own realization only a few minutes prior that these people weren't out to get her. 

"W-what?" she asked shakily. Bulma took a deep breath. 

"Do you want to live with us? Me, Vegeta, Bra and Trunks?" Bulma asked. She and Vegeta had talked about it the night before, after Kris had fallen back asleep. Bulma wanted to adopt her, seeing as her parents were obviously dead and no one else had ever taken care of her. Vegeta's only complaint was that there would be "another brat to deal with". 

Kris blinked in surprise and her small body slowly relaxed. She…_wanted_ her to stay? She wasn't going to take her back to the compound or throw her out onto the streets? Bulma continued talking.

"If you don't, that's all right. I just figured that since, from what you've told us, there's no one else to take care of you, we could," she said as she turned back toward the front of the vehicle. She waited for a response, which could take awhile, knowing how quiet Kris was. 

Meanwhile, Kris just stared in shock. They wanted to take care of her? Did that mean they liked her? She had so many questions buzzing through her head that they all blended together into an incoherent string of thoughts. She got a warm feeling in her stomach that made her squirm in happiness. She felt like crying again, though she didn't know why. 

"How about this," Bulma said, "I'll give you some time to think about this. Besides, I still need to talk to Trunks and Bra about it. So you just take your time, okay?" Kris nodded silently, still reveling in the warm/fuzzy feeling. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Kris had never seen so many people, or colors. Every sense she had was being bombarded, except for maybe taste and touch. There was music playing, and all different kinds of music, from all directions. People were talking, shoes clicked and screeched against the hard tile floors. Her sensitive Saiyan senses were taking in so much at once she was becoming disoriented. And the smells! There was the far off smell of food, and perfume. Masking these odors was the overwhelming smell of _people_! Male, female, young, old, there were so many she couldn't even distinguish one from another! 

Bulma grabbed her hand and held it so she wouldn't get lost in the crowd, and so began the shopping spree. Bulma almost had to drag poor Kris to the first store, she was so engrossed in the smells of the mall. Once they got into the store, Kris snapped out of it and looked around. It was a store specifically for children's clothes, and Bulma wasted no time in searching through the entire place, holding up various clothes to Kris, and after finding her size, didn't even continue doing that. 

While Bulma was trying to find "the cutest little outfit" she had seen last time she had been there shopping for Bra, Kris wandered around the store. Something caught her eye and she walked over to it. It was a rack with a bunch of overalls on it. The overalls were all blue, with a pocket on the front, two pockets in the back part of the pants, and two on the sides. On the front, right below the pocket, were the words FIGHT in white. (A/N: That rhymed!) 

Kris grinned and reached up to grab it off the rack. But, to her annoyance, it was hung too far up for her to reach it! She frowned and stood on her toes and stretched her arms high over her head and frantically tried to grab the article of clothing. Still no overalls. She was now all-out glaring at the overalls, as if they were taunting her by staying out of her reach. Her tail, which she had wrapped around her waist before entering the mall at Bulma's request, twitched in annoyance. Those overalls would be hers, no matter what. Now she just had to figure out how to get them. 

She stood there for a moment, arms crossed and scowling, deep in thought. Anyone who walked by at that moment would have thought that it was the most adorable thing they'd ever seen. Suddenly, she got an idea. She grinned triumphantly and wasted no time in climbing up the rack. Her tail unfurled from around her waist to help her balance and incase she lost her grip. Her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth in concentration as she reached for the hanger that was attached to the desired overalls. 

She leaned further out, wiggling her fingers. Suddenly, the entire thing started to lean to one side. However, she didn't notice this; her entire mind concentrated on one thing: those darn overalls. She lunged at the hanger and grabbed it before the entire rack fell over, taking her with it. She screeched in alarm as she was buried in clothes and thrashed around in a futile attempt to dig herself out. She had about as much success as she had earlier that morning with the bed sheets. 

By this time, Bulma had realized that Kris had wandered off and was looking for the little Saiyan when she heard the screech. She sighed and ran to where the sound had come from. When she got there, she saw about twenty racks toppled over, domino style. Bulma could definitely feel a headache developing. She noticed a large pile of clothes moving around and growling. She walked over and moved the clothes aside until she uncovered a snarling, thrashing five-year-old Saiyan who was clinging to a pair of blue overalls. Bulma stood up and crossed her arms. 

"Kris," she stated to get the girl's attention. Kris opened her eyes and blinked. 

"I'm free!" she squealed and leapt up and ran around in little circles. Bulma giggled. It was just so cute! She had planned on yelling at Kris for wrecking half the store, but suddenly couldn't.

"Look look Bulma!" Kris said after she had stopped running in circles. She held up the overalls and grinned, feeling very proud of herself for getting them all by herself. Bulma smiled and took the clothing. 

"Did you get this all by yourself then?" she asked. Kris nodded vigorously. 

"Can I get 'em?" Kris asked hopefully. Now Bulma nodded. "Yaaaaayyy!!" Kris yelled, and ran around in happiness again. 

"Now come on, we've got to go pay for all this stuff. And get out of here before security shows up." 

"Yaaaaayyyy!!"

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ 

Bulma ignored the stares that people were giving them as Kris finished her tenth taco, fifth cheeseburger, and seventeenth slice of pizza. You got kind of used to it after awhile. Kris finally sat back and sighed contentedly. 

"Finished now?" Bulma asked. Kris smiled and nodded. "Well, come on then. We've still got more shopping to do," she said and gathered up all the bags. Kris hopped out of the chair and followed her out of the food court. On their way to yet another store, Kris tugged on Bulma's hand. She pointed to a bookstore.

"Can we go there?" she asked Bulma.

"Sure thing. Do you know how to read?" 

Kris nodded. "Mm-hm."

"Oh? Who taught you?"

Silence. Kris's grip on Bulma's hand tightened and she started towards the bookstore, Bulma following. Bulma decided not to enquire any further on that subject. For now, at least. Kris let go of Bulma's hand and ran to the children's section. Bulma followed her, but got distracted by an interesting looking book and stopped about halfway to the children's section to look at it. 

Meanwhile, Kris was looking over the books eagerly. Unfortunately, she was so happy and excited, that she forgot to keep her tail hidden, and it wagged happily behind her as she scanned the shelf. 

"Hey! Look at that! That's girl's got a tail!" a boyish voice shouted. Kris still didn't notice. She only noticed when she smelled three little boys behind her. Her tail stopped wagging and she turned around. She looked suspiciously at them and fidgeted nervously when they stared at her. 

"How come ya got a tail?" one boy asked. Another one pushed him roughly.

"Don't be stupid, Charlie. It's 'cause it's a freak, that's why!"

Kris stiffened and narrowed her eyes at them. It was like before, only not as many people. The last boy chuckled.

"Yeah, and she's a _girl_. A girl with a tail! Heh heh. Hey, I bet if we pull it she'll start crying and run to her mommy!" he laughed. His friends laughed as well. Kris fairly shook with rage, and was barely able to keep herself from attacking them. _How dare they?!_

She closed her eyes and tried to will herself to calm down, but it only made her angrier. She opened her eyes and glared at them. However, they didn't notice. In fact, they got bolder in their taunts. 

"Yeah, I bet she'll start crying; that's just like a stupid _girl_!" 

Kris's eye started to twitch. One of the boys made a grab at her tail and she reacted instinctively. She backhanded him across the room, where he slammed against a shelf of books, knocking most of them off before sliding off. His two friends paled, glanced at her, glanced at each other, and ran. But would Kris let them run away without retribution for their words? Oh no. 

She grinned savagely and tackled one of them to the ground, where she proceeded to beat on him. He screamed and cried while his "friend" ran as fast as he could away from the crazed girl and to his mother. Just then, Bulma showed up. She put one hand over her face and shook her head hopelessly. 

'Why?' she thought. 'Why me?'

She looked at the Saiyan girl who was currently straddling the poor boy and beating on his face. Her mouth was twisted in what could only be described as a sadistic grin and her eyes looked demented. 

'Shit,' Bulma thought. She hurried over to the pair and grabbed Kris by the back of the shirt. Kris snarled and tried to spin around to attack whoever _dared_ to stop her from beating the weakling! She thrashed around helplessly while the poor little boy stumbled to his feet and limped away as fast as possible when…well, limping.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!" Bulma screeched at her. Kris winced and calmed down slightly. She stopped struggling and crossed her arms, growling. Bulma set her down and Kris spun around to face her. She glared as hard as she could, but Bulma was unfazed. Just then, Bulma's watch beeped. She looked at it and turned the beeping off by pressing a little button on the side. 

"We have to go pick Bra up from school now. But we'll talk later about beating up defenseless people. Understand?" Bulma said. Kris just snorted and looked away. Bulma sighed; she didn't have time to reprimand her, so she just grabbed the little girl's hand and hauled her out of the mall before security could show up and cause and even bigger scene. 

So, didja like it? I'm sorry it's so short, but I don't think I can cram anything else into this chapter. I'm exhausted and my hands hurt. I wrote almost all of this chapter in one day. Again, it'll be awhile before the next chapter. I actually got done with this one much faster than I had expected. I am not capable of churning out one chapter a day or even one chapter every other day. Sorry, but I can't write that way. This next chapter will probably be titled 'Decisions' and it will be more serious and almost angsty. As angsty as you can get from a five-year-old, anyway. 

Again, see that little button down there, next to 'Submit a Review'? CLICK IT! 


	3. Decisions and Origins

Thank you for reviewing The Vagrant, Midnight Shadow, operation: Mystic Waters, Tsunamimbw, and Brian! I'm sorry this chapter took so long, my schoolwork is getting in the way. Oh well. I'm also sorry if this chapter sounds forced. My mind keeps drifting to when Kris is a teen. But that's not gonna happen for a little while, so relax. Also, I completely forgot about mall security in the last chapter! Argh, how could I?! We'll just say that they left before security got there, okay? Okay. 

Chapter 3: Decisions and Origins

            It was the weekend after the mall incident, and Kris was bored out of her mind. She had already watched cartoons with Bra and bothered Trunks to the brink of his sanity, and now she was wandering around aimlessly, looking for something, _anything_ to do. She was walking down a hallway while studying the amazing color of the carpet when she ran into something and fell backwards. She looked up and saw Vegeta staring down at her with a towel draped around his shoulders, apparently having just come from the GR. 

            "Watch where you're going brat," he growled and stalked off. Kris sat on the ground for a moment when an idea hit her. She grinned, scrambled to her feet, and ran after Vegeta. She found him in the kitchen (A/N: Surprise!) rooting around in the fridge. She walked up to him, still grinning. He noticed her after a minute.

            "What the hell do you want?" he asked, irritated by that stupid grin plastered on her face. Kris only smiled even more and shrugged her shoulders innocently. (A/N: * snort * Yeah right.) 

            "Nothin. Just watchin ya." She answered. Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. That girl was up to something. He grabbed the food he wanted out of the fridge, carried it over to the table, and preceded to eat. Kris followed once again and sat in the chair across from him. He glared at her from over the mountain of food, but she just smirked back at him. You're probably asking yourself what her plan is. Simple. She's going to annoy him to the point of exploding, then run off and find either Bra or Bulma and act like nothing happened. It wasn't much, but it was entertaining at least. 

            Once all the food was gone from the table (but not before Kris had snatched some of it) Vegeta stayed sitting and glared at Kris, arms folded across his chest. If the brat wanted to stare at him, then she'd get stared at right back. Kris plastered the grin back onto her face, though it was now smudged with various foodstuffs. 

            "Clean up your face brat. You're as bad as Kakarot, and almost as un-Saiyan-like." He sneered at her. Kris tilted her head quizzically and all semblances of the smile that had been planted there vanished, along with her plans of annoying him. (A/N: What do you expect, she's five years old? She gets distracted very easily.)

            "What's a Saiyan?" she asked innocently, and this time she actually was innocent. She had no idea what a Saiyan was, though she had heard it mentioned before. Vegeta groaned.

            'It figures,' he thought. 'She's just like Kakarot! Another one. Just great,' He sighed heavily.

            "Come on. Follow me, we're going to the gravity room. I'm not missing any training time just to explain to you what you are," he told Kris as he got up and started towards the GR. Kris jumped up and followed.

~  . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            Vegeta closed the door behind them and set the gravity to 5. After all, he didn't want to kill the poor kid, even if she was being annoying beyond all reason. He heard a strangled sound come from Kris when the gravity kicked in and was amused to find that she was having a difficult time staying upright. He smirked and threw a few punches in the air while he talked. (A/N: Please excuse my laziness. I can't seem to get this part, so just insert a nice speech about the Saiyans being a warrior race, how Planet Vegeta was destroyed, etc. So sorry I can't write that, I tried and it was horrible so I'm leaving it out. Be imaginative and please forgive me.)

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            Later in the day, after dinner and a bath, the latter of which she had protested violently to, Kris lay in bed in fuzzy baby blue pajamas. She was staring at the ceiling, wide-awake. She mulled over what Vegeta had said earlier. 

            'So… that means I'm an alien?' she thought to herself. 'So my dream about that planet blowing up… that's real? Not just a dream?' She wrinkled her forehead in concentration. That would explain a lot, like having a tail, the strength, and various other things that set her apart from the rest of the beings on the planet. She was suddenly overcome with a wave of loneliness. She was the only one she knew of _anywhere_ that had a tail, and even at that young age she already felt isolated and different from everyone else. People had called her names, stared at her, even _ran away in fear_! Kris shivered and whimpered as she felt tears spring to her eyes. She sniffled and squeezed her leaking eyes shut. 

"No," she whispered to herself. "No crying. Won't cry. It doesn't matter what they think…" However, deep inside, she knew better than that. It did matter what other people thought of her, because she was so tired of being alone. In her entire life, she couldn't remember ever really having a friend her own age. Or a real friend either. She turned over onto her stomach and buried her face in the pillow. She was starting to get a headache from trying to hold the tears back, so she decided to get up out of bed and walk around. Maybe that would distract her from her sorrows so she would finally get sleepy. 

She landed softly on the carpeted floor of the room and walked quietly over to a backpack that Bra had gotten her earlier in the week. The backpack was stuffed in a corner, seeing as she really had nowhere else to put it. Kris wiped at her face as she kneeled down next to the backpack. She had packed it with some stuff she thought she might need if she ever had to run away again. She really did want to trust these people, but after being hurt by those scientists that had essentially kept her prisoner, she felt very reluctant to trust anyone ever again. 

She unzipped the largest pocket and carefully pulled out a stuffed animal. It was her favorite, a fluffy black dog with a cute little pink tongue hanging out the side of its mouth. She hugged it close and nuzzled its fur. She felt her headache gradually melt away into nothingness, but she still wasn't sleepy. She slowly got to her feet, still clutching "Mr. Huggles" to her chest, and left the bedroom to wander aimlessly around the hallways. (A/N: Isn't Mr. Huggles a cute name? It makes me want to get my old stuffed animals and cuddle them. Anyway…)

After awhile she came to a sliding glass door that led out to a balcony. Being a curious little five year old, she opened the door and walked outside. She peered over the side of the railing, supporting herself with one arm while the other held Mr. Huggles. She leaned over further, trying to see all the way to the ground, like most little kids do. Unfortunately, she lost her balance and began falling forward. She squeaked in surprise as she started to go over the rail and clutched her precious little stuffed animal to her chest once more and shut her eyes tightly, like she could brace herself for the impact of her body hitting the hard ground from three stories in the air. After a few long moments of non-body-hitting-the-ground-seconds she opened her eyes. She was hanging upside down by her tail, which had latched onto the railing. She let go of the breath she had been holding and flipped herself back onto the relatively solid ground of the balcony. 

"Okay," she said shakily. "Maybe tails aren't that bad after all…" She was squeezing Mr. Huggles so hard that the stuffing was almost coming out. After a couple of minutes the adrenalin wore off and she got sleepy at last. She yawned and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. 

She glanced at the sky just as she was about to go back to her bedroom. There were thousands of stars strewn across the black sky, and Kris just stood there in awe. If she had been in the country she would have seen many more, but her Saiyan eyesight was able to pick out enough through the air pollution to make her stare, open-mouthed, in wonder. She had never actually seen the stars before, She had been kept indoors most of the time, and when she escaped from the laboratory she really didn't have anytime to look at the stars. 

"Wow," she whispered. "It's so…pretty…" A thought struck her (A/N: Ow!) as she looked at the cosmos above her. If she came from another planet, and stars were planets, than… which one was hers? She searched the sky for one that seemed like it was, but she couldn't find it anywhere. She hung her head, disappointed. 

'Wait, if my dream was real, and it blew up,' she thought. 'Than I wouldn't be able to see it 'cuz it wouldn't…be…there…' That thought didn't do anything to brighten her already melancholy mood. She sighed heavily and walked back into Capsule Corp. and to her room. 

She crawled back into her bed and curled up around the blankets. And, yes, she was still hugging Mr. Huggles. She mulled over some more things before she fell asleep, like Bulma's offer to adopt her. 

'That wouldn't be too bad,' Kris thought. 'And if something goes wrong or I don't like it, I could always run away again. I hope that I don't have to. It's kinda nice here…' Her thoughts trailed off as she slipped into a deep, untroubled sleep. 

Again, I'm so sorry this took so long! The next chapter probably won't be until after the holidays. I'm really busy, what with school and Neopets. Yes, that's right, Neopets. I've gotten caught up in that world, and it's hard to tear myself away long enough to read and write fan fics. I can't help it, they're so cute! I now have two of them, a little blue Shoyru and a yellow Eyrie. I had a dream about a golden Eyrie once… Um, anyway, the next chapter will be about… another OC!! Yep, that's right, another one! I'm not telling you anymore about it, you'll just have to wait!

There's a little tiny, microscopic button that's exactly the same color as Trunk's hair at the bottom of this page.  Click it and I will be the happiest person on the planet. Well, maybe not, but click it anyway!


	4. Relics and Explanations

            I'm so sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out! I had school, and the holidays, and all my new presents to play with, and… I just forgot. Please forgive me?

Okay, I kind of made a mistake on my last chapter in the author notes. This chapter won't have the other original character I was planning on in it. In this chapter the whole thing about Kris being only five years old when Planet Vegeta blew up at least 30 years before will be explained. Another thing, I won't be able to write for a while after this, my grades are slipping and I need to bring them back up. Also, thank you pruningshears, The Vagrant, and Lireal for reviewing my last chapter! I love reviews, even if I don't get a lot of them. Oh well. On with the fic!

Chapter 4: Relics and Explanations 

            It had been two months since Kris had been brought to Capsule Corp., and one month since the Briefs had adopted her. She was going to be enrolled into school in another month or two, even though she protested loudly and violently at having to be around a bunch of noisy smelly little kids who just happened to be her age. Despite all the tantrum throwing, she was still going. (A/N: That rhymed! Okay, I'll shut up now…)) 

            But Kris wasn't thinking about any of that. Because right then, Trunks had Mr. Huggles and was dangling the precious stuffed animal above her reach and taunting her. 

            "Give him back!" she shouted, jumping into the air and waving her hands over her head in a futile attempt to grab Mr. Huggles back. 

            "Come and get him!"

            Meanwhile, Bra was in her room playing with her toys, and Bulma was, where else, in the lab working on some project or another.

            Eventually, Kris kicked Trunks in the shins and got her stuffed animal back, but that's not important. What _is_ important is what Vegeta was doing at the time. Right then, he was far away from Capsule Corp., in the middle of a desert, looking for somewhere else to train besides inside the GR. Sometimes what was needed was a vast wasteland full of small defenseless animals and large boulders to explode, rather than those damned bots that kept having to be repaired. That, and he had broken the GR anyway earlier that day. So, our dear Saiyan prince was flying out in the middle of nowhere, looking for the perfect spot to blow some things up. 

            As he was flying, he happened to spot a huge crater in the ground below. Not uncommon, as the Earth Special Forces were always accidentally blowing _something_ up. A crater wasn't really anything new or surprising. What was strange however was that it was the only mark around. If it was the site of a sparring match, there would have been many more craters, some blast marks, trenches where bodies had skidded across the ground… and there really was no other explanation for it being there that Vegeta could think of at the moment. So, of course, he flew down to investigate. 

            Landing silently on the rim of the crater, Vegeta looked down into it. A round, metal object rested at the bottom, covered in a fine layer of dirt, obscuring any markings or distinguishing features that might have been inscribed onto it. This only further piqued the prince's curiosity. He flew down into the crater and landed next to it, blowing some of the dust off in the process. 

What it revealed confirmed his suspicions. Saiyan writing was printed on the side of what was now most definitely a Saiyan space pod. On the other side, the door to the inside of the small ship was slightly open, enough for a good deal of dirt to seep inside. Vegeta opened the door completely with relative ease and peered inside. 

            It was a standard pod, one seat, a control panel and circular window in the door, a drawer underneath the seat for storing supplies. Vegeta's eyes were drawn to two items lying on the floor and he picked them up, brushing the dirt off. One was a silver scouter with a blue lens, obviously custom made. The other object was a necklace with some kind of tough hide as the cord and a metal pendant attached to it. The pendant had a white, almost clear stone imbedded in the center, with triangular marks reaching out from it. Think of a caricature of a sun and you've got it. Vegeta's eyes narrowed as old memories came back into focus.

            'She wore this. All the time, even when it got her in trouble…' he thought as he stared idly at it. 'Of course. Konora. She's Konora. I knew she looked familiar…' His thoughts trailed off. He clutched the scouter and necklace in his hand and took off. 

            'There may be hope for the Saiyan race yet…'

~ .~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . 

            It was late in the afternoon by the time Vegeta came back. He had stopped to spar with Kakkarot on the way, and that had taken a couple of hours. 

            "I'm hungry… when can we eat?" Kris was whining when he stepped in.

            "As soon as the cooking bots finish making it," Bulma replied evenly. The entire Briefs family was seated in the living room, waiting for one of the robotic maids to glide in and announce that dinner was ready. Bulma's mother and father had just come back from a vacation a couple days ago, so they were there as well. Upon finding out that Bulma had adopted Kris, Mrs. Briefs immediately went to work spoiling her "new grandchild" as much as she spoiled the other two. Kris didn't seem to mind it. (A/N: See? I didn't forget about them! Aren't you happy? No? Darn it…)

            Kris sighed heavily and flopped around on the couch until she positioned so that her feet were on the backrest and her head was hanging over the cushions and her arms hanging down limply. She spotted Vegeta from her upside-down position and smiled cheerfully.

            "Hi Veggie!" she chimed. Vegeta winced. Ever since she had overheard Goku call him that she had been using it. She knew it annoyed him to no end, and yet she didn't seem to fear any retribution on his part. Probably because she knew that as long as she stayed near Bulma, he couldn't do anything to her. She was definitely smarter than she looked. 

            "Well, it's about time you got back!" Bulma scolded. "If you had been any later, we would have had dinner without you, and you'd have to get your own food! What exactly were doing all this time? Oh, let me guess. Training, right? I swear Vegeta, that's all you ever do! Eat and train!" The scolding went on for a little while longer. 

Kris was grinning to herself and kicking her legs back and forth happily. She tuned the voices of everyone around her out. She closed her eyes and started humming. Nothing in particular, just mindlessly humming, like any little kid would do. She forgot everything around her; the voices of her adopted family fading further from her mind, the feeling of the furniture's fabric disappearing slowly… She was still humming when she heard a voice echoing in her head.

"Be still little one 

_Sleep on undisturbed_

_Everything is right _

_With the world tonight_

So just close your eyes and dream…" 

            "What are singing?"

            Kris snapped her eyes open and abruptly stopped singing. She hadn't even realized that she had started. She blinked a couple times and sat up, remembering where she was. 

            "Huh?" she asked.

            "You were singing something," Bra answered. She had been the one to snap Kris out of her trance. "It sounded nice, but I couldn't understand what the words were,"

            Kris was at a loss for words. She really didn't know what she had been singing. Heck, she didn't even know she _had_ been singing until Bra told her. 

            "I… I don't know…" she muttered. There was silence in the room and every set of eyes was on her. Apparently, she had sung loud enough for everyone to hear. Kris felt a chill go up her spine and she fidgeted nervously. She hated it when people stared at her, it made her feel like they were waiting for her to move so they could pounce on her. Like she was a rabbit and they were a pack of wolves…

            The robotic maid they had been waiting for rolled into the room just then, breaking the tension. There was a miniature stampede to the kitchen by the three youngest in the room, and dinner was started, and the song was momentarily forgotten.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            After dinner, Bra went to a sleepover at Pan's house, Bra, Trunks, and Mr. Briefs were in the lab working on a new project, and Mrs. Briefs had gone to bed. Thus, it was only Kris and Vegeta in the living room with the television turned on to a boxing match.(A/N: They wouldn't watch wrestling because wrestling is fake. I don't care what you say about it, it _is_ fake. And stupid, but that's just my opinion..) Kris was engrossed with the program, eyes glazed over and mouth hanging open. (A/N: That's how my younger sister watches tv. It's so funny, you can't even get a response out of her. That's probably not a good thing though.)

            Vegeta was only half watching it. The other half of the time he was glancing at Kris, wondering how he was going to explain this…

            "Yeah!" Kris exclaimed when one of the fighters punched the other one in the face. She pumped one of her fists in the air and cheered. "That baka doesn't stand a chance! Get 'em!" The cheering continued for a while. Vegeta watched her with a smirk on his face. 

            'At least she's Saiyan enough to like fighting…' he thought. Kris turned and looked at him. Vegeta took a deep breath. 'Here goes,' he told himself. Kris tilted her head to one side cutely. Why was he looking at her? Didn't he want to watch the fight?

            "Brat," he started. He paused before continuing to make sure she was still paying attention. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the scouter and necklace he had found earlier and set them in front of her.

            "These are yours." Kris just stared. After a minute, she whispered "Where did you find them?" Vegeta ignored the question and picked up the necklace.

            "This," he said, "is a sign of royalty. Only members of the royal family had these. I already told you I was the prince, didn't I?" Kris nodded silently. He put the necklace back down and picked up the scouter next. He looked at it and ran his fingers over it. "And this," he continued "was my sister's…" He glanced at Kris to see what kind of reaction she would have. 

            Kris blinked a couple times, slowly absorbing the information. Once she came to the realization, her eyes widened considerably and she almost stopped breathing. 

            'He's… he's my… uncle?!' She blinked a few more times before finally looking at Vegeta. He was expressionless, but looked like he was expecting her to do something other than just blink at him. Kris made a choking sound a couple of times. 

"Y-you're…" she stuttered. She made some more choking sounds in her throat, unable to say it. Vegeta raised an eyebrow and finished her sentence for her.

"Your uncle? Yes," he replied. Kris made one more sound and then just sat there, not sure what to do. Vegeta put the scouter back down and Kris redirected her blank stare towards it. She hesitantly reached out and picked it up. She passed it from hand to hand, playing with it, and lifted it up to her face to inspect it more closely. She somehow managed to fit it over her ear correctly and although it was a little large for her face, it seemed to work for her. 

            "Everything's all two colored…" Kris said, looking around curiously. She closed the eye that wasn't covered by the blue glass and looked at Vegeta.

            "You're all blue!" she exclaimed and collapsed in a fit of giggles. Vegeta rolled his eyes. After she was finished with that, she picked up the necklace. She toyed with that for a while too, but didn't put it on. She looked like she wanted to say something, but kept stopping herself.

            "Spit it out brat," Vegeta growled. Kris looked up from the seat cushions of the couch to Vegeta's face.

            "What was my mommy like? I don't really remember much…" she trailed off and looked back down at the couch again. 

            "You remember well enough," Vegeta said. Kris looked up again.

            "Huh?"

            "That song you were singing earlier," he explained. "That song was a Saiyan lullaby. You heard it from your mother. You'll probably remember more about her later." Kris didn't say anything for a minute. Then:

            "What about my daddy?"

            Vegeta paused. He really didn't know much about his older sister's mate. 

            "Well," he started, "He was an elite warrior-"

            "What's that?" Kris interrupted. Vegeta sighed. It would be a long night…

            "An elite is a warrior who is one of the strongest Saiyans on the planet, but not stronger than the royal family." He answered. Kris thought for a moment.

            "Is Ka-ka-rot an elite?" she asked.

            "No. He's just a third-class baka."

            "Oh."

            There was silence for about five minutes, bar the sounds from the television that was left on. 

            "So you're really my uncle?"

            "Didn't I already answer that?"

            "I know that, I'm just making sure! Geesh…"

             More silence. Then:

            "Can I call you Uncle Veggie now?"

            "No."

            "Please?"

            "No."

            "Why not?"

            "Because it's a stupid name."

            "No it's not."

            "Yes, it is."

            "Is not."

            "Be quiet brat."

            Kris finally did shut up and turned her attention back to the boxing match. At roughly 9 pm, it was still going on. Kris yawned and struggled to keep her eyes open long enough to see who won. 

She suddenly felt cold all over as she neared the brink of unconsciousness. She curled into a ball and shivered. Her eyes shut against her will as she drifted into sleep, and into one of her dream-memories. Vegeta looked over at her as she shivered violently. 

            'Strange,' he thought. 'It isn't cold at all in here,' He took off the leather jacket he was wearing (A/N: Just pretend he was wearing a leather jacket the entire time, okay?) and put it over Kris as a makeshift blanket. She whimpered in her sleep and clutched the jacket closer to her. She still felt cold, and images of a red planet were floating in her head. It just kept getting further and further away from her…

            'Damn it, not again,' Vegeta thought. 'Why does that brat always whimper in her sleep? If I wake her up she'll start crying, and if I let her sleep… she'll wake up and start crying. Damn it.' He shook her gently to wake her. Kris's eyes snapped open and she tensed up. Once she realized where she was she relaxed slightly. She still felt cold, however. She shivered again and closed her eyes tightly.

            "What the hell is wrong with you? It's not cold!" Vegeta not quite shouted. 

            "B-but I f-feel c-cold!" Kris protested. She hated being cold, she always had. It made her feel bad, plus the fact that it was uncomfortable. She curled up inside the jacket in an effort to conserve body heat. Vegeta looked at her quizzically. What was wrong with her? What had she dreamt about _this_ time? Well, he could have one of his questions answered at least.

            "What were you dreaming about this time Konora?" he asked. Kris visibly tensed up again. 

            'Konora? I think I remember that… my name? Konora… yeah, that's what mommy called me…' she thought. She started to speak.

            "There was this red planet and it kept getting smaller and smaller. Then, there was a bright light and everything started shaking. That's it. And I was cold in my dream too." She replied shortly. She promptly went back to shivering. Vegeta finally gave in and picked Kris up and set her on his lap.

            "Huh?" Kris muttered. 

            "Be quiet and sit still, unless you want to freeze." Vegeta growled out. Kris stayed still and didn't say anything. He gathered some pink colored energy into his hand and pressed it against Kris's back. Her body absorbed it and she immediately fell asleep. She had stopped shivering too. Vegeta sighed in relief. She couldn't talk if she was asleep, and that was a good thing. He needed time to figure out her latest resurfaced memory. The red planet was easy enough. It was Planet Vegeta. She was traveling away from it, so it was shortly after her last memory. A bright light. The planet exploding? That would make sense. She was still an infant when that had happened, so she had been launched right before the planet blew up. Everything shaking was obvious too. The shockwaves from the blast would have knocked the pod around a lot. But then it would have been knocked off course and it had to have sustained some damage from the debris… and suddenly it clicked. How Kris could be five years old when she should be almost as old as Goku. 

The newer pods had a suspended animation feature built into them. It was just incase something happened to pierce the hull and nothing could be done to repair it. It would automatically kick in and virtually freeze the person inside it, keeping them exactly as they were for an indefinite amount of time. Kris, Konora then, had been placed inside one of these new models and sent off planet just before it was blown up. The debris from the destroyed planet hit the pod and punctured the hull, so the suspended animation feature was activated. And, twenty-five years later, she landed on Earth and was defrosted, so to speak. All he knew after that was that she had been kept in a laboratory. No one could get any more information out of her. 

Vegeta was brought out of his thoughts by movement from Kris. She had shifted so that she was now curled up on his lap, still covered by the jacket, and her tail had wrapped around his wrist. She was purring contentedly. Vegeta smiled a little at this. Even if she wasn't his child, she was still his niece, and therefore it was his duty to raise her in the absence of her parents. That, and she was the last full-blooded female Saiyan in the universe. She couldn't be left to the weakling Earthlings, she was too precious. She should be taught about the proud Saiyan race, learn how to fight, find a mate and- that train of thought stopped abruptly. Find a mate? A _human_ mate? Even if she did find a human male who could take on a Saiyan female of royal blood, it would only result in more half-breeds. And while he didn't find anything necessarily wrong with half-human, half-saiyan brats, he had been hoping that with another full-blooded Saiyan added into the mix that the Saiyan race still had a chance at survival.

But apparently that wasn't meant to be. With every generation, the amount of Saiyan blood in the veins of his descendants would get smaller and smaller, until it might as well not be there at all. Vegeta sighed heavily, scooped Kris up out of his lap and stood up. He was getting himself depressed, and he didn't particularly enjoy being depressed. (A/N: * winces * That sounded bad even to me. And I wrote it. I'm sorry.) 

He strode to Kris's bedroom and put her into her bed. He tried to get the jacket away from her, but she clung to it like a barnacle. He gave up on that, managed to get her tail off his wrist, and left the room. He stood outside the door for a minute, falling back into thought. 

'Well,' he thought, 'if I thought that Kakkarot and I were the last Saiyans, and she turns up, then there just might be more… feh, what am I thinking?' And with that he stalked off to the GR to train until breakfast the next morning.

So, what do you think? Did I take long enough getting this chapter out? I'm going to keep making them at this pace unless I get lots more reviews. I only got three for my last one! I'm not trying to sound greedy or anything, but I want reviews for my work! Poetry is great, but it never gets much feedback. So, I kind of expect more people to leave reviews for a fan fiction. * sighs * Oh well. 

I'm not telling you anything about the next chapter, so there! You can suffer! Ha!

Changing subject completely, has anyone reading this heard of Neopets? Well I just figured out HTML, so my pet's web page is so beautiful now! It's really cute, you should look at it. My username is saiyajingirl17, please Neomail me if  you're on Neopets too!

Okay, I don't care if you don't even have anything to say about this story, just leave a review so that I know more than six people have read my fic!


	5. Saiyans Seem To Pop Up Out Of Nowhere!

            Alright! Reviews! I'm sorry I didn't upload this sooner. 

            Majin Yokai: Did I update soon enough? =)

            Mystical Tiger: * blushes * Really? Wow. One of the greatest fics ever written huh? * spies her huge ego racing forward * Aaahh! * smashes it with a large mallet until it grudgingly sinks back into the shadows from whence it came * There. I feel better now. To avoid this happening in the future, check out my Favorite Stories list on my bio. Those are some of the greatest fics ever written. Until then… * puts on a shirt that says: "Please Do Not Feed The Ego" *

            Falling Star: Thank you! 

Writers Block! I'm not sure how to continue this story without it becoming cliché. I hate cliché! Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Chapter 5: Those Saiyans Seem To Just Pop Up Out Of Nowhere…

(long title huh?)

2 months have past since the last chapter

            Kris woke up in her bed, yawned, stretched, went to get breakfast… blah blah blah blah…

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . 

            After breakfast had been eaten, rather messily of course, and after being trained by Vegeta for three hours, and another hour for a nap and healing, Kris finally had some time to play. She ran outside into the large front yard of Capsule Corp. There, she climbed up a fruit-bearing tree and clung to a large branch while she munched away on the ripe fruit. 

            As she was eating, she stared at the road and the cars that sped by. She would have to go to school next month, and she was dreading it. She'd never been to school before, but from watching television and the information her cousins had given her, she knew she wouldn't enjoy it. It was hard enough dealing with the Earth's Special Force and their families, not to mention the people who worked in Capsule Corp. and felt the need to say "Aawwww" whenever she so much as twitched. Although she swore it was because normal people were annoying, not even she realized that it was because she was still skittish around people. To her, she just didn't like them. She needed no other reason.

            Kris sighed and let the inedible part of the fruit that was left over drop from her hand and onto the ground. She yawned and wrapped her tail around the branch she was seated on and preceded to doze off.

            "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!"

            Kris's eyes snapped open and she looked around, panicked. There, in the middle of the street, was a smashed up car. 

            Curious, Kris jumped down from the safety of the tree and walked out of the yard and onto the sidewalk to get a closer look. In front of the wrecked car, which was beginning to smoke, was a boy. His arm was still outstretched and his fist clenched. There was also a fist-shaped dent in the right fender of the aforementioned car. It didn't really occur to Kris that _he_ was the cause of the accident. She couldn't really think at the moment. Because, waving agitatedly behind the boy was a furry brown _tail_. 

            Kris stood there on the sidewalk staring openly and gaping. The driver of the car forced himself out of the hunk of scrap metal and approached the little boy, gesturing wildly and yelling.

            "Look what you did to my car! It's ruined! I just had it detailed! What the heck do you think you're doing, in the middle of the road?!"

            The man continued ranting while the boy lowered his arm and stood there, watching as the irate driver stomped back and forth across the black pavement, apparently yelling at the air now. 

            "Where the heck are your parents anyway?! Don't they know better than to let dangerous, reckless children roam the streets? Don't-"

            "I don't got any parents," the boy interrupted.

            The driver stopped short and Kris snapped herself out of her daze. He looked at the man straight in the eyes, and didn't stutter at all when he spoke of his lack of parents. Kris blinked in surprise at his boldness.

            "Get outta the road kid," the man growled out. "Before you get run over." 

            And with that, the man stalked back over to his ruined car to weep over its twisted remains. 

            The boy still stood there, blinking confusedly. Just then, sirens were heard. Kris whirled around to face the oncoming police cars before thinking better of it. An idea struck her and she darted out into the street, grabbed the startled boy's hand, and dragged him back into Capsule Corp. before he could protest.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . 

            Inside Capsule Corp…

            "Hey! What're you doing?!" the boy yelled as he was dragged into Kris's room.

            "Ssshh! Do you want them to catch you?" Kris hissed. She shut the door behind them and pressed her against it to listen for anyone following them.

            "Them?" the boy questioned. "Who's them?"

            "The police! They'd take you to jail! Now keep your voice down!"

The boy stayed silent until Kris retreated from her position at the door. 

            "So," he said. "Who're you?"

            "My name's Kris," she replied. "What's your name?"

            "Um…" he stood there, contemplating, until it finally clicked in his brain. 

            "Ranu!" he exclaimed.

            Kris shook her to get rid of the feeling that she had heard that name before.

            "Okay," she said. "What were you doing in the middle of the street anyway?"

            Ranu paused and put his hand on the back of his head, scratching contemplatively. 

            "Well, um… what exactly is a street?"

            Kris felt a large sweat drop of disbelief roll down the back of her head and her mild frustration at the boy's answers presented itself as her left eye lid twitching. 

            "A street," she explained in a restrained voice, "is that big long black thing you were standing on before I rescued you."

            He considered arguing with her about the whole "rescuing" part, but decided against it when he saw her eye twitch. Just then his stomach growled. He smiled in apology at Kris and scratched the back of his head again.

            "Say, do you have any food around here?" he asked. Kris sighed and nodded.

            "Follow me," she said, and led the way to the kitchen.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "Well hello Kris!" Bulma's mother cheerfully greeted Kris and Ranu, who was practically being dragged, entered the kitchen.

            "And who is your little friend here?" she questioned, putting down the dish she had been drying. 

            "His name's Ranu," Kris replied, before Ranu could tell her himself. He glared at Kris, but she didn't take notice.

            "Can we have a snack?" Kris asked in the sweetest voice she could muster. She made her eyes wide and water a little to enhance the look of child-like innocence. 

            "Plleeaassee?"

            "Well, it is very close to lunch time," Mrs. Briefs commented. Kris pouted a little.

            "But I don't think a snack will ruin your appetite! I'll make you a quick little snack, okay?"

            Kris's pout abruptly transformed into a grin and she ran forward and hugged her adopted grandmother's leg in thanks. Ranu followed example and latched onto Mrs. Briefs' other leg. Aaaawwww….

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            Both Kris and Ranu dove headfirst into the many pastries that Mrs. Briefs had bought at a store not too long ago, and consumed them at a pace only Saiyans could achieve. After a little under a minute there was only one left. Kris glared at Ranu, daring him to reach out and grab the lone pastry. 

            Ranu glared back with a similar thought running through his brain. The stare down continued for an entire thirty seconds before Kris's hand twitched and it became and all-out battle for the single little strawberry pastry. 

            They flung themselves off of the chairs they had been sitting in and bit, kicked, punched, and pulled hair. Eventually, it became a struggle to stay upright and transformed into a grappling match instead, with each Saiyan growling and baring their fangs threateningly, while trying to throw the other to the ground. 

            In a surge of power, Ranu pushed Kris back a few feet. She stumbled as her feet connected with a chair leg and fell, while Ranu dashed over to the strawberry pastry and held it up triumphantly.

            Kris stood back up hastily and brushed imaginary dirt off of her clothes. She took one look at the victorious look on Ranu's face and turned around to scowl at the wall. How could she have lost? Her uncle had told her she had royal blood, and that members of the royal family were the strongest, so how could she have lost to him? 

She went from scowling at the wall to glaring at the floor and sighed heavily.

'I'll just have to wait until lunch then,' she thought.

            Kris's sigh caught Ranu's attention. He looked up from his prize, which he had yet to stuff into his mouth, and at Kris. His brow furrowed in thought. He looked back down at the pastry then back at Kris, who had her back turned towards him and her head down still. He smiled suddenly and broke the treat in half very carefully. He ran in front of Kris and held one half of it out to her, grinning happily.

            Kris looked up, surprised. She blinked a couple of times and Ranu looked back at her quizzically. 

            "Don't you want it? I thought since there was only one we could share it…" he trailed off uncertainly. His smile faltered for a moment and a confused look took its place. 

            Kris slowly closed her hand around the piece of strawberry and sugar-filled flaky crust. She smiled shyly and whispered a quick thanks and looked back down at the floor again, suddenly blushing.

            Ranu grinned happily once more and popped his half of the pastry into his mouth and ate it rather quickly. Kris placed the half she took in her own mouth and chewed more slowly. She felt giddy, like she had to jump around and yell like an idiot or she would explode. So, as both of them swallowed down their respective halves, Kris inquired

            "Do you want to play a game now?"

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            They both threw themselves onto the grass and stared up at the sky as fluffy white clouds drifted by and they caught their breath. 

            "Can we play tag again?" Ranu panted.

            "'Kay," Kris panted back. "Just gimme a minute."

            As the seconds ticked by, they got their breathing back to a normal pace, but neither moved to get up and resume the game. Ranu shifted to put his hands underneath his head and sighed contedly.

            Kris turned her head to look at him. He was staring up at the sky, smiling. He felt her gaze on him and turned to look at her.

            "What?" he inquired. 

            Kris shook her head and turned back to the gathering clouds in the sky. Ranu blinked confusedly at her. Another minute passed.

            "Ummm…" he started. Kris turned back to him. Ranu was fidgeting nervously until he finally decided to just stare back up at the sky again.

            "Do, um… you… want to be my friend?" he finished as quickly as he could.

            Kris blinked a few times in shock. She felt that same bubbly feeling get more intense. A huge grin broke out on her face and she abruptly leaped on Ranu and hugged him.

            "Ack! Ranu cried, flailing. "What're you…?"

            Kris buried her face in his shoulder to hide her blushing and just in case she started crying. She didn't really know, or care, what it was that made her blush so often, but she did know that she had to be the happiest girl in the universe.

            "So that's a yes?" Ranu asked the girl who had attached herself to his front. She nodded into his shoulder. He grinned yet again and hugged her back. (A/N: All together now…. Aaaaawwwww…)

            CRACK!

            Both Saiyans jumped at the loud sound and looked around. The clouds that had been fluffy and white not minutes ago were now dark, and covered the sky. Kris let go of Ranu and gazed up at the now angry sky curiously. A drop of rain splattered against her forehead and, as if by a signal, the clouds unleashed their fury in full force.

            Both little Saiyans yelled and ran toward Capsule Corp to get out of the wind and rain that was reaching a violently dangerous level. They tripped and fell into the mud multiple times, getting filthy in the meantime,  not to mention miserably cold, before they finally made it to the relative safety of Capsule Corp. and the heated interior of the living room. _Relative_ safety I said. 

            "What the heck are you doing covered in mud?!"

            Kris cringed away from Bulma, who looked about to explode. Vegeta was there too, but he was taking a break from training and watching tv, and couldn't care less if she was dripping mud onto the carpet. The _white_ carpet. But he glanced over anyway to make sure the woman didn't lose it. And to see the brat get in trouble of course. When he glanced over, he saw _two_ figures covered in mud. He blinked to try and clear his vision and sincerely hoped his eyesight wasn't deteriorating. Nope. Two children, presumably one was his niece, covered in mud from head to tail. 

            He blinked again. Two little Saiyans were standing there dripping mud onto the white carpeting and being chewed out by his mate.

            "Vegeta!"

            Vegeta jumped in surprise but recovered quickly.

            "What now woman?" he snapped.

            "Give your niece a bath before she ruins the carpet anymore!"

            Vegeta's eyes widened.

            "What?! No way am I going to give her a bath! Why can't you do it?" he yelled.

            "Because I'm tired of having to wrestle her into the bathtub every single time! It's your turn! And she's _your_ niece, _you_ should be the one to take care of her, so just give her a damn bath!"

            Vegeta growled and got up off the couch, in a sense admitting defeat. He scooped up both the children, not knowing which one was Konora in their mud-covered state. For all he knew they could both be her. He must be loosing his mind… 

            He carried both up the stairs, to the bathroom, over his shoulder like bags of rice, growling about lazy women the entire time. 

            Vegeta dropped both mud-encrusted Saiyans onto the tiles floor of the bathroom and stood there, arms crossed and scowling. Seconds passed and both five-year-olds looked up at him, confused. Finally, Kris spoke up.

            "Um, uncle Veggie… I can kinda explain…" she started. Vegeta was silent and his expression didn't change at all as Kris spoke, which unnerved Ranu just a little bit, but Kris was used to it.

            "Well, you see, his name is Ranu, and I saved him, and now we're friends, and we were playing outside when the storm started, and while we were running back here we tripped and fell and got all muddy…" she trailed off, not being able to think of anything else. 

            "You forgot about the food," Ranu pointed out.

            "Oh, yeah," Kris opened her mouth and prepared to continue on with what all they had done that day, but Vegeta stopped her.

            "Just get into the bathtub brat. You can explain later."

            Kris ran forward to hug his leg, but was stopped again when he picked her up by the back of her shirt and deposited her in the empty bathtub. He glanced back at Ranu, who still stood in the same exact spot as when he had dropped them. Ranu caught the look and scurried into the bathtub with Kris.

            Phew! That was exhausting! So, do you like the new character? I know the plot isn't really going anywhere yet, but don't worry, it will soon. Just give it some time. Actually, I'm thinking of ending this one soon, and staring a sequel, that will probably be more romance. I've never written romance before, so I figure I'd give a whack at it. 

            I'm not quite sure what the next chapter will be about. I'm thinking Kris and Ranu's first day of school, and a little more background information on Ranu. Something like that. I'll get to it soon, I promise!

REVIEW!!! It doesn't take that much effort!!


	6. School most original chapter title ever

Wow! I got this chapter out in record time, and I've already started the next one! I'm so proud of myself! ^_^

Falling Star: Yep! I tried to make that chapter cute to make up for this one. * evil laughter *

Okay, so it isn't that bad… more of Kris's past is revealed. Poor little traumatized thing…. And it gets worse. Ack! I've said too much!

Helpful ages (why? For the heck of it.):

Goten: 12

Trunks: 13

Marron: 9

Bra: 7

Pan: 6

Kris and Ranu: 5

Chapter 6: School

(A/N: 1 month after last chapter)

            "I don't wanna go!"

            "Let go of the door! You have to go!"

            "No!"

            So was the deafening noise that greeted Ranu as he sleepily blinked open his eyes. He yawned hugely and looked around the room he had fallen asleep in the night before. After a few moments he recognized the voices and contemplated going back to sleep.

            After listening to Ranu recite what he remembered of his past (which was only his name), Bulma had come to the conclusion that Ranu was the victim of amnesia, much like Goku was. Ranu didn't remember how he survived the first five years of his life all by himself, or if anyone had taken care of him. (A/N: Which makes for a convenient character!)

            He had been staying with Chichi and Goku for the past few weeks, on Chichi's insistence. That and Vegeta had threatened to kill him in his sleep if they had to stay anywhere near each other, so they really didn't have a choice. Last night however, he had had a sleepover at Capsule Corp. with Kris. It was miracle he lived through the night. 

            Ranu jumped out of the bed and threw on some clothes quickly. Today was the first day of school! He opened the door to the hallway.

            "Nooooo!"

            And was greeted by the sight of a very peeved Bulma dragging a struggling Kris down the hallway.

"Honestly! It's just school, not a torture chamber!" Bulma said. 

"I don't really blame her mom," Trunks half-mumbled as he staggered past them, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Oh, shut up. You're not helping. Come on Kris, it won't be so bad!" Bulma said encouragingly. "You might even meet some new friends! How does that sound?"

"NO!"

Bulma rolled her eyes and gave up on trying to persuade Kris to get ready for school willingly and continued down the hall, Kris trying to desperately claw her way back to the safety of her room. 

Ranu blinked a few times in confusion before shrugging it off as "Kris just being Kris" and cheerfully assisted Bulma in dragging her downstairs to the kitchen, ignoring Kris's cries of "traitor!". 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Kris sat in the backseat of the car, Bra and Trunks on either side of her, with her arms crossed and glaring at the driver via the rear view mirror. 

Bulma sighed and shook her head. 

"You know," she began. "I doubt it will be as bad as you think it will be." Ranu, who was in the front passenger seat, turned to look at Kris.

"Yeah. We'll meet lots of new people! Maybe some of them will be really nice and want to be friends!" Ranu exclaimed happily.

Kris turned her glare at him.

"You have no idea," she replied darkly.

Ranu turned back around to the front, confused as to why his best, and only besides Goten, friend was so opposed to meeting new people. 

Bulma pulled the car into the parking lot.

"Here we are!" she exclaimed.

"Yay!" Ranu cried, and struggled to get out of the imprisonment of the seat belt. 

Kris growled and stayed put as Trunks undid her seat belt for her, and him, Bra, Ranu, and Bulma got out of the car. She continued to growl as she watched Bulma give her a look that clearly threatened something unpleasant if she didn't get out with the rest of them. She grudgingly hopped out of the parked car and looked around, as if she was expecting someone to leap out of the non-existent shadows and attack her. 

Ranu, however, was ecstatic. 

"Come on Bulma-san, hurry!" he yelled, jumping up and down in excitement. Bulma laughed and led the two, one who was running ahead and the other trailing behind, to their classroom while Trunks and Bra went to their own respective classes.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Kris glared and growled as she watched all the other children run around and play before class started. (A/N: They're in kindergarten. I'm not basing it off Japanese schooling, my reasons being 1. I have no idea what that's like, and thus can't really write accurately about it, and 2. DBZ does not take place in Japan. Shut your mouth. It doesn't. Get over it, and accept the fact that the DBZ Earth is not the same Earth as ours. Hell, it only has one continent! And a bunch of islands, but you get the point.)

Kris glanced over at Ranu to see that his eyes were huge and sparkly, and he was just barely restraining himself from running forward and pouncing happily onto one of his potential playmates. Kris snorted at his enthusiasm. 

"Well, hello there!" a cheerful feminine voice interrupted her thoughts. Kris looked up to see who she supposed was the teacher, a cheerful-looking blonde woman who looked about in her mid-twenties. She was currently leaning down to get a better look at her new students and smiling brightly. Kris frowned and looked away.

"Hello! Are you the teacher? My name's Ranu. Do I just call you 'teacher' or-" Ranu chattered. Kris rolled her eyes.

"Whoa, hold on there! You're certainly excited to be here, aren't you?" The teacher laughed. Ranu nodded vigorously. 

"And yes, I am the teacher. You can call me Ms. V, my whole name is too hard to say."

'Not as hard to say as some words in Saiya-go I'll bet,' Kris added mentally. Vegeta had been teaching her how to speak Saiya-go recently. 

Ms. V turned to Kris now.

"And what's your name?" she asked sweetly. Kris glared at her and grunted. 

"Oh, her name's Kris," Ranu explained. "She doesn't want to be here, but I don't know why."

"Well Kris, why don't you want to be here? I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends, other than your brother here," Ms. V said, mistaking Ranu and her for twin siblings. Bulma interrupted and explained everything to her, right down to both of the kids having tails and not being related. While Bulma was doing that, Kris had drifted off into her own thoughts yet again.

'Lots of new friends huh? Yeah right. It's just like before, and it'll end the same way too…'

* * Flashback * *

"Come on," a male voice commanded. Kris yawned a blinked sleepily. 

"Huh?" she muttered.

"Get up. You're getting a day off from testing, so hurry up and don't waste it."

Kris got up out of her cot and dressed in her one outfit of play clothes. She carefully wrapped her tail around her waist and followed the man out of her "room". In all actuality, it was more like a prison cell, but she always called it her room. She skipped happily as she followed the scientist down a hall. A day off! She wondered what for.

He led her into a room she had never been in before and what she saw made her squeak and hide behind the man's leg in fright.

There were children everywhere! And toys! Kris stared in shock at all the commotion made by all the other children playing.

The man who had led her pushed her forward and quickly left. The door clicked quietly behind him. Later, Kris would associate the clicks she always heard with something significant, but the she hadn't the mind to equate the two things together.

Almost immediately after her entering the room, a girl around her age with green hair ran up to her.

"Hello!" the girl chirped.

"H-hi…" Kris responded uncertainly.

"Do you want to play with me?"

"Um… 'kay…." 

And the girl promptly grabbed her hand and dragged her off to play dress-up. After an indefinite amount of time, although it couldn't have been more than an hour, the two were approached by a small group of little boys. Kris and Emily (the green-haired girl's name) looked up from the plastic horses they had been playing with. 

"Whatcha doin'?" The apparent leader asked, contempt evident in his voice. Kris felt a tingly feeling go up her spine. She had seen some of the scientists look at her the way those boys were looking at both of them. Like fresh meat when they hadn't eaten in days… Both girls stood up.

The boy, needing no reason, pushed Emily to the ground. Kris snarled and abruptly punched the offending boy in the gut. He flew backwards a few feet and skidded to a halt on the floor. 

Kris's tail snapped out from around her waist and lashed angrily behind her. The room broke out into a panic. Kris winced and covered her sensitive ears to protect them from the shrill screaming. She looked around for Emily, to make sure she was all right.

She found her in a little plastic fortress and stuck her head in. She winced again as the children hiding there screamed again. 

"Are you okay?" she asked, and offered a hand to Emily to help her out of the play fort. She was therefore surprised when her new friend shrank back and screamed and cried. One of the children inside threw a plastic block at Kris and it hit her in the nose. 

She yelped and jumped back, hands nursing her injury. The children, apparently seeing this as a sign of weakness, slowly crept out of their various hiding places. Another toy came flying through the air and hit her squarely in the back of her head. She yelped again, tears springing to her eyes. 

The twelve or so boys that had become bolder as she didn't react suddenly pounced. They dragged her to the floor and punched and kicked, screaming various monkey-related insults at her. While the physical blows had little sting, the words acted as a catalyst, turning her confusion and sorrow into anger. 

She screamed and thrashed, but still a few clung on. Desperation began to claw at her mind and within a few seconds, she found herself free. She was panting heavily and looked around for a clue as to what happened. The various boys who had clung onto her were now scattered throughout the room. She looked down at herself and saw a nice blue aura flicker and disappear. She tilted her head to one side in confusion. She heard more screaming and growled in frustration. Deciding to ignore it, she stalked over to where Emily was to continue playing undisturbed. 

"S-stay away from me!" Emily screeched as Kris neared her. Kris blinked in surprise. 

"But… don't you wanna play?" Kris asked innocently.

"No! I would never want to play with some… some… monkey-tailed monster!" and she promptly scurried away to the door and pleaded to be let out. Kris started shaking.

'But… I'm not a monster! They were gonna hurt you… I don't understand!'

As the scientists gave the other children back to their parents and led her back to her room she heard them talking.

"Well, that experiment was a surprise, eh?"

"I'll be surprised if we don't get sued if it caused any damage to one of the kids."

"Ah, quit worrying. If they file a complaint or anything of the sort, we'll deny it and put little 54763 somewhere they can't find her!"

"It, Jones, _it_! Honestly, you can't go getting attached!"

"Dr. Toshika seems to be rather fond of her."

"Well, you know I don't approve of that. We could advance so far in our research if only that sentimental fool would just let us do some chemical testing! If _I_ was running this compound…"

Kris barely registered anything they said, although later she would wish she had. Not that she could have stopped what was going to happen…

The scientist who had been leading her opened the door to her cell and pushed her in. 

_Click_.

And there it was again. The door closing with a click. She strained to remember when she hadn't heard a door click after it was closed. She couldn't bring up a single memory. She collapsed in the middle of the cold tile floor and curled herself into a ball and sobbed.

* * End Flashback * *

"Yo! Kris! You awake?"

Kris jumped in surprise and smacked Ranu in the head.

"Oowwww! What'd you do that for?!" he yelled, nursing the lump on his head. Kris glared at him.

"Because you were in my face!"

"Was not!"

"Were to!"

"Was not!"

"WAS TO!!"

"Now now," Ms. V scolded. "No fighting!"

Kris stared at her like she had suddenly sprouted a tail. On her forehead.

"No fighting?" she echoed quietly, more of a statement than an actual question. Ms. V stared back with a similar expression. 

"That's right…" she trailed off. Kris's face fell. She abruptly let her legs give out and sat on the floor. Mrs. V moved to pick her up, but Bulma stopped her.

"She's fine," Bulma said. "Just… difficult." 

"Come on Kris, get up!" Ranu pleaded. He really didn't want her to be left out of all the games that were currently going on. He picked her up by the armpits, but when he let go she just dropped back down to the floor and crossed her arms stubbornly. Ranu sighed in defeat and gave her one last pleading look before wandering off to play with the other children.

Kris felt tears threaten to overcome her eyes before she turned away and rubbed them. She swore to herself that she wouldn't let this abandonment get to her. 

Shortly after, Bulma and the other parents left, and Ms. V called the class together. Kris reluctantly joined the circle to listen to stories. After that it was the alphabet, which Kris quickly became bored with. She already knew how to read, why should she sit there listening to someone recite the various letters? She stared with disgust at the many children who struggled with the first few letters. To her dismay, Ranu was one of them. She silently resolved to teach him one day soon.

As an hour passed, it became snack time. Kris perked up a little bit at this, and she barely managed to keep her tail wrapped tightly around her waist, and not wagging happily behind her. She glanced over at Ranu and prayed he didn't forget to keep his tail in check as well. 

She waited anxiously as the snacks were coming down the line.

"Here you are Kris!" Ms. V said cheerfully and handed Kris a graham cracker. Kris stared incredulously at the single measly cracker in her hand. After a moment, she sighed dejectedly and crammed the entire thing into her mouth. It was gone in less than 10 seconds. 

After snack time, it was naptime. Kris did _not_ want to sleep with all those other noisy smelly brats, but her instincts kicked in and she was out cold in two minutes. She had just eaten, after all, small amount though it was. She was used to sleeping around this time anyway. Vegeta said being a "weak female" had something to do with it, but Kris hadn't really paid attention. Anyway, the point is Kris fell asleep, and Ranu didn't. 

He stared at the ceiling while all his new playmates fell asleep around him. He looked around and saw Kris, asleep on her mat, all curled up in the blankets. He smiled at the sight. She always did that. He knew from experience.

 During one of the sleepovers they had (not too many, but enough to cement their friendship without driving the adults in both households insane) he tried to share the blanket Kris had and in the morning wound up hopelessly tangled because of her. While they were struggling to get free, Chichi walked into the room, told them to stay where they were, and rushed out. When she came back a minute later, she had a camera and was snapping pictures, saying how cute the two looked together and talking to herself about ways to embarrass them when they were older and (she got really happy at this part) married! Neither of the two Saiyans knew what 'marry' meant, and had just brushed it off as another strange incident that didn't need to make sense. 

Ranu decided to get up and go talk to Kris. He was bored, and there was nothing else to do. He carefully kicked off the blanket and crawled around the other children until he was right next to Kris. The teacher had left to get some coffee from the teacher's lounge, so there was no one to scold him for being disruptive during naptime. 

He gently shook her shoulder to wake her. Kris groaned and clutched the blankets tighter. 

"Kris! Wake up!" he hissed into her ear.

Kris's eyes shot open at the feeling of rushing air in her ear and she sat up. She relaxed when she saw it was Ranu. 

"What do you want?" she mumbled and rubbed her eyes. 

"I wanted to talk," he answered calmly. Kris gave him a quizzical look. 

"'Bout what?" she inquired. 

"Well," Ranu started. Kris waited for him to spit it out. She knew the boy had trouble with talking to people sometimes. At times he was even shyer than her. 

"I was wondering…" he continued. "Do you wanna play with me during recess?" Before Kris could answer, he continued, fearful that the answer would be no.

"'Cause you see, everyone else is fun and all, but… they just aren't as strong or fast as you are, and I wanted to play tag and stuff, and they can't ever keep up…"

Kris moved to pounce on him and hug him (her usual method of saying yes) but got caught in the blanket and landed on her face. Ranu choked back a laugh and helped her up. No matter how many times she did that, it would still be funny! 

Kris blushed and looked at the floor once she was free of the "death-grip" of the blanket. 

"Thank you," she muttered, embarrassed that she had to have help.

"You're welcome!" Ranu replied cheerfully.

"Wakey wakey!" Mrs. V had returned and switched on the lights. Kris groaned and covered her eyes to shield them from the offending fluorescent lights. As the other children groggily became aware of their surroundings, the lessons resumed. 

Woohoo! So, how did you like it? Not much was revealed or explained in this chapter, but don't worry! I'm just getting to the good stuff. =)

I might be redoing the first chapter, so just bear with me, okay? I have to fix it in so many ways it makes me tired just thinking about it. 

All right, to the next chapter! Next title: Vaccinations and Fears. This one will be horribly short. I'm sorry. It was going to be the ending to this chapter, but I decided to split it up. I'm already working on the chapter after that. Aren't you proud? ^_^ Anyway that one will probably be titled Parent Teacher Conferences. I'm guessing you already know what it's going to be about. That one will focus more on the four remaining full-blooded Saiyans and is just generally going to be a fun little chapter. Maybe some chibi romance at the end? I'm a sucker for chibi romance. I melt every time I read it, and I have no doubt that I will end up a gooey sticky melted mass of KrysSaiyan before I'm finished with that chapter. 


	7. Vaccination Terror

* cries * Thank you SO much for reviewing Falling Star, and especially you Mirrorwind! I was getting kind of depressed about no one reviewing after… what was it? An entire 12 days after posting a new chapter? * pouts * My poor wittle ego was starving… * pats Ego comfortingly * But no more! 

Mirrorwind: Don't worry, Kris won't turn out like Goku. It's just that she resembles him in some ways. After all, Goku does act like a little kid! Actually, I'm thinking Ranu will be more like Goku than Kris will. But that'll be explained later. ^_^

Chapter 7: Vaccination Terror 

            "So, how was your first day?" Bulma asked when they got home. She had somehow managed to get Vegeta to agree to pick them up. Kris grunted and stomped up to her room.

            "It was great!" Ranu chattered excitedly. "Except for the snacks. They were too small. And naptime was boring. Oh, but recess was really fun! Me and Kris played tag, but then we started sparring and Ms. V got upset and sent us to the 'office'. I think she was mad or somethin'. Maybe we aren't supposed to spar in school? Anyway, the prin-ci-pal gave me this note and said to give it to my parents. I tried to tell him I don't have any parents, but he wouldn't listen! Oh, and Kris got one too, but I think she tore it up."

            Bulma sighed. Kris was definitely related to Vegeta. They were both stubborn, angry, and anti-social.

            "Here," Bulma said. "Let me read the note." Ranu fished the paper out of his pants pocket and handed it to Bulma. 

            "Dear Parent or Guardian of Ranu (no last name given):

            We regret to inform you that your son was caught fighting with another child today. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior at our school and we are requesting a parent/teacher conference to discuss your son's behavior and what can be done to correct it. The conference is scheduled for Tuesday at 3 pm. The staff and I hope to see you there with your son."

            It was signed by the principal. Bulma sighed again and glanced over at Ranu, who was currently eating straight out of the refrigerator. She leaned back in her chair and took a large gulp of coffee from her cup. It had been hard enough convincing the school that both children had been vaccinated without papers from the doctor, but after all, who was going to call Bulma Briefs a liar and force her to turn over some non-existent paperwork? But now someone had to pose as their parents! Two some ones actually. Kris was easy enough; Bulma would go if she wasn't too busy. But Ranu was a different matter. Speaking of vaccinations….

            "Ranu? Would you go get Kris out of her room?" Bulma asked.

            "'Kay!" Ranu said and padded up the stairs to fetch Kris.

            "Make sure she has her shoes on! We're going somewhere!" Bulma shouted after him. She waited until she heard a muffled "'Kay!" and then left to drag Vegeta out of the GR. She had a feeling she'd need his help for this.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "Here we are!" Bulma announced. (A/N: She seems to do that a lot huh?) 

            Ranu looked around curiously to see where "here" was. He couldn't tell. As all four of them got out of the car (yes, Vegeta rode in the car) and walked across the parking lot into the entrance of a huge building Kris began to felt uneasy. She pushed it to the back of her mind, but nonetheless grabbed Vegeta's hand for comfort. He glanced at her, but did not remove her hand, and they continued into the building.

            As the automatic glass doors slid open the air conditioning system created a small artificial wind that blew back a few strands of Kris's hair. The scent hit her and she froze. Her hand tightened its grip unconsciously. 

            "What is it brat?"

            Kris shook herself out of it and looked up at Vegeta. 

            "N-nothin'" she stuttered, and they kept walking. Kris's hand didn't relax its hold. 

            "Eventually, they got to a waiting room and sat down. Kris had let go of his hand while Bulma explained that they were at a hospital. Then, after explaining to Ranu what a hospital was and assuring him that no one was sick, it was just to make sure no one was, everyone sort of settled down. Sort of. 

Vegeta was sitting next to Bulma, who was flipping through magazines and complaining about how out-of-date they were, Ranu was playing with a few little toys that were left out by the staff for that exact purpose, and Kris was… well, she was sitting as far away from everyone else as she could. A nurse walked into the room.

"The doctor will see you now!" she cheerfully announced, then left again. Kris started shaking slightly and Ranu looked at her with concern, but didn't say anything.

Both adults led them into a small brightly colored room. The doctor's office, presumably. While Ranu looked around in wonder, Kris stared straight ahead and tried not to panic. 

'They wouldn't let me get hurt, right?' Kris thought, glancing briefly at the adults. 'No, they're nice. They wouldn't ever let me get hurt. I'm safe. I'm safe. I'm-' Her inner dialogue was interrupted by the arrival of the doctor. 

"Hello Mrs. Briefs! It's wonderful to see you again, and without another severely wounded person being brought in!" They both laughed a little at the thought. It did seem as if the only time Bulma ever came there was when one of her friends, or her mate, were injured too badly for the first-aid kit and no senzu beans were available. 

"It says here," the doctor said, glancing at the clipboard in his hands, "that these two little ones need to be vaccinated?" 

Bulma nodded. "Yep. That's why we're here." She said. She suddenly got a look of deep concentration on her face.

"Dr. Ashitaka?" she said.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering… do you think it's okay if both are here at the same time? I mean, it might scare them, wouldn't it? I was thinking one of us could wait outside with either of them while the other one gets their shot."

"No, that's quite alright Mrs. Briefs. I find it's a lot easier if you explain it to them, then let them see that it's relatively pain-free by watching someone else get an injection,"

Kris twitched violently. She made a strangling noise from deep in her throat. She wondered idly if the room was supposed to spin like that… was it another test? No, the tests were over… but why did it smell like they weren't? She swayed on her feet and her tail unwrapped from its usual position around her waist to help her keep her balance. 

Ranu ran forward toward the doctor and smiled and greeted him with a "Hi!"

Dr. Ashitaka smiled back and ruffled Ranu's hair affectionately. 

"You're certainly a friendly little kid! What about you over there?" he said and looked at Kris.

She didn't move a single muscle. She wanted to scream at Ranu for being so naïve, for letting this man get anywhere near him, scream at him to run far away, but she couldn't get anything past her throat. All the words lodged there and turned watery. She felt panic roil around in her stomach and she felt sick. Her eyes were glazed over and the swaying continued. 

The room was too small, it looked too much like a cage and a laboratory, the disinfectant smell brought back memories that should have been buried and gone, the white coat the doctor wore… she was shaking so badly now that her knees gave out and she collapsed on the floor.

"Kris!" Bulma exclaimed, half  suspecting that this was a repeat of earlier that day when Kris refused to cooperate with the whole school thing. 

Kris's tail was stretched out stiff behind her and every single hair on it was fluffed up, giving the tail a very different appearance than before. The only one in the room who knew anything about Saiyan body language was Vegeta, and the widened eyes, dilated pupils, and stretched out, fluffed up tail was a silent siren that screamed out that Konora was a _very_ terrified little Saiyan. 

"Kris-chan!" cried Ranu, rushing over to her. "What's wrong?" Dr. Ashitaka moved forward to see if there was something physically wrong with her. 

She wasn't responding verbally, though tears had started to form in her eyes. 

Vegeta growled in frustration, grabbed Kris by the back of her shirt, and was out of there faster than you could say "teleport".

Next thing Kris knew, she was on the roof of the hospital, being held at arm's length by her uncle, who was looking at her quizzically, silently demanding an explanation for her behavior. 

She felt the tears build up in her eyes and the lump in her throat felt like it was choking her. Her bottom lip trembled as she tried her hardest not to cry. But the stress of the day, all the old painful memories piling up in her head… she burst out sobbing and clung to Vegeta like her life depended on it.

Vegeta sighed in exasperation. This was getting ridiculous! She already cried at least three times a week, and you'd think she would have gotten it all out of her system by now! He was getting rather suspicious of what his niece had been through at this laboratory, and he didn't think he'd like the answer at all. Nevertheless, he held Kris and let her cry into his shirt. Once she was done crying for the most part, he held her away from his now-soaked shirt and put on his most serious face.

Kris sniffled and wiped her eyes. She looked up at Vegeta and winced at his face. She bowed her head and stared at her feet that were currently dangling a few feet off the ground. She knew that face too well.

"Konora," he started. Kris winced again. He hardly ever used her Saiyan name, he usually just called her brat.

"What. _Is it_?" he growled out. Kris squirmed a little.

"Konora," he growled louder, warning her.

"I…" Kris started. "I got… scared…." She whispered.

"Scared of _what_?"

Kris fidgeted and bit her lip again.

"Of… getting sick again…" she whispered in an even softer voice. 

Vegeta's eyes narrowed. He knew he wouldn't like the answer.

"Sick?" he asked. He had to be sure. "Sick from what?"

Kris shivered and felt a headache starting to form.

"Gettin' a injection." She replied. A few more tears rolled down her face and she refused to look at her uncle. She sniffled again and held her arms out, silently asking to be held again. Vegeta complied and watched her as she curled up against his chest and slowly fell asleep. It had been a stressful day, and she hadn't even gotten a good nap in, so it was entirely natural for her to fall asleep in the first safe place she found herself in. 

Vegeta stood on the roof for a few more minutes, looking at his niece and turning this new information around in his brain, putting the pieces of Konora's past together. Scene I: She witnesses her mother die and the planet blow up at the tender age of one and is frozen alive shortly afterwards. Scene  II: Lands on Earth. Captured by scientists. Experimented on until she somehow escaped at the age of five. Scene III… well, there was still a piece missing. How the heck had she escaped? 

Vegeta shook his head slightly. They were going to have one screwed up little Saiyan female on their hands. He shuddered to think what she would be like as a teenager. He hadn't dealt with teenage girls before, but he had heard the horror stories, and if what he was like as a teen was any indication of what all teenage Saiyans were like… oh yeah. There were going to be several problems later on. He didn't think that the planet would be able to survive three female Saiyans in their teens. His mind wandered a bit.

Kris was resembling Kakarot more and more. First there was the way she ate (although he had been teaching her how to eat properly and she was improving) and now this fear of needles had appeared! Although she apparently had a halfway decent reason for the phobia, while Kakarot did not. 

He glanced at the little Saiyan who was now snoring softly and his face relaxed a fraction. He felt a twinge of sympathy towards her. The poor thing went through almost as much as he had, and he couldn't really blame her for the way she acted. 

Vegeta flew back into the doctor's office via the window. Ranu was sucking contentedly on some candy and examining a green band-aid on his arm. Apparently he had gotten through his shot without much trouble. 

Bulma looked at Vegeta, silently asking if everything was all right. Vegeta nodded once and handed Kris to her. She held Kris's arm while Dr. Ashitaka gave her the shot while she was still unconscious. They all left and headed home after that.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Kris yawned and sleepily opened her eyes. She was on the couch in the living room and the television was on. She sat up and looked around. 

"Well, good morning sleepy-head!" a cheerful voice greeted her. She drowsily turned her head and saw Ranu sitting next to her, a grin plastered on his face. Kris grunted at him and fell back onto the seat cushions.

"Aw, come on! You can't go back to sleep!" Ranu whined. "You've been asleep for an entire _hour_ already!" 

Kris grunted again and opened her eyes to watch the television. 

"Say somethin'!" Ranu pleaded.

"Go 'way," Kris responded. 

"But I wanna play and there's no one else to play with! Bra and Trunks are doing homework and Uncle Goku won't come to take me home until tomorrow!" Ranu had taken to calling Goku his uncle  after hearing Kris call Vegeta that. He figured if Kris had an uncle, he should have one too. No one had complained.

Kris sighed and pushed herself up.

"What do ya wanna play?" she groaned. 

"I dunno…"

Kris rolled her eyes.

"Then how 'bout we stay here and watch TV until you think of something," she suggested.

"Oh, all right," Ranu agreed.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Kris was getting bored with the shows that were on that channel. She turned to Ranu to demand the remote control when she caught a glimpse of the bandage on his arm. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her to get a better look. 

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ranu exclaimed in protest.

"Hold still!" Kris commanded. She fingered the neon green band-aid and felt worry worm its way into her stomach. Ranu saw her curiosity of the bandage and smiled reassuringly at her. 

"It doesn't hurt," he explained. "I think it's just there to look pretty." Kris's expression turned blank. Taking this as a sign of confusion Ranu explained further. 

"When we went to the hospital, and after you and Vegeta left, the doctor put this sharp thing in my arm. He said it was a shot, and it would keep me from getting sick. It hurt a little, but your punches hurt worse." 

Kris's eyes grew wide.

"You got stuck with it too," he added as an afterthought. She let go of his arm and hurriedly inspected her own. She found the telltale blue band-aid covering up the point of injection. The color drained from her face and she let her arms drop limply to her side. 

Ranu leaned so that he could look at her face. When he saw the pale complexion and wide eyes he knew something was wrong. 

"Kris?" he asked. She turned to look at him, fear still evident in her eyes.

"Kris-chan? What's wrong?"

She ignored him as she desperately tried to calm down and not start screaming and crying. 

As she slowly convinced herself that her uncle and Bulma wouldn't let them hurt her in any way, and that the shots must be safe, it was her turn to smile reassuringly at Ranu. He still looked concerned, but her simply gave her a look that said she would have to explain eventually and turned back to watching cartoons.

So, how'd you like? It's a little short, and the plot is advancing at the speed ice cream melts in winter. I'm not even sure if I have what you would call a plot. Oh well. I have a couple more chapters to upload, but I'm tired right now. You'll have to wait.

Next chapter: Parent Teacher Conference! A fun little chapter that seems to be turning depressing near the end. Ah well. 

REVIEW!!!


	8. An Orphan's ParentTeacher Conference

All right guys, the plot is beginning to form. Hang on tight boys and girls, there'll be plenty of angst and some action, and a tiny bit of romance. Okay, more than a tiny bit. I couldn't help myself. I'm sorry. The actual plot won't begin in this chapter, but I'm in the process of writing the next one. It's going to be a long one, and it will take a while, but trust me, it'll be worth it.

            Falling Star:  * sobs * You're such a wonderful reviewer!! * gives you a huge bag full of cookies * Enjoy! ^_^

            Ka-Dalun: Thank you! I'll spare you this time, but keep reviewing, kay? 

            As for the rest of you who didn't review (and I _know_ there's more of you): why the heck not?!  * grabs and shakes the non-reviewers * Review, darn you!

Chapter 8: Orphan's Parent Teacher Conference

            "Look Vegeta, I don't want you to go either, but I _have _to go to this meeting! It won't kill you to just bring her there, grunt, then leave! It's not like I'm asking you to blow yourself up or anything!"

            "Why the hell does the brat have to go back to that damned school? She was just there and hour ago! And just cancel your stupid meeting!"

            Kris growled irritably as he listened to Bulma and Vegeta argue from her spot on the couch. She rather agreed with Vegeta (surprise surprise). Why _should_ she go back to school? It didn't make sense!

            "FINE! Just stop your damned screeching woman!"

            Kris sighed in defeat and waited for her uncle to storm into the living room, pull her from the couch, and drag her back to that hell-hole they called an educational institution. And, true to her predictions, that's exactly what he did.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "Hiya Kris!"

            "Yo Vegeta! What're you doing here?"

            Vegeta's eye twitched in irritation when he spotted his rival waving cheerfully from across the playground outside the building.

            "What the hell do you _think_ I'm doing here Kakkarot?" he snapped.

            "I dunno. Chichi just told me to take Ranu back to the school and behave myself," he replied. After a few moments of silence, he spoke again.

            "Hey, Vegeta?"

            "What."

            "Um… why _are_ we here?"

            A large 'sweat drop of disbelief' rolled down Vegeta's head.

            "For a 'parent-teacher conference', you moron."

            "Oh."

            Kris kicked at a stray rock.

            "Vegeta?"

            "_What?_"

            "Geez, calm down! I just wanted to ask what a 'parent-teacher conference' is."

            There was a long moment of silence before Vegeta could think of a convincing and in-character response.

            "Shut up Kakkarot."

            "But-"

            "I said shut up."

            "…"

            "…"

            "You don't know either, do you?"

            "I thought I told you to shut your oversized, baka third-class mouth!"

            "Excuse me," a voice interrupted.

            "Is there a problem here?"

            Vegeta turned around to face the person who had dared interrupt. The person was a middle-aged, balding guy in a very stiff business suit. The very stereotype of a school principal. Which, as a mater of fact, he was.

            Before Vegeta could show him what the problem was and rip out the poor human's stomach, Goku stepped forward. 

            "Nope, no problem here!" he said. The principal gave both a strange look.

            "Are you here for the parent teacher conference?" he asked.

            "Yep!" Goku replied.

            Vegeta just snorted.

            "Then I assume you to be Mr. Briefs and Mr. Son?"

            "Right again!" Goku confirmed cheerily. He held out his hand for the principal to shake.

            "My name's Son Goku. Pleased to meet you!"

            The principal shook his hand (and checked to make sure none of the bones in his hand were broken afterwards), then turned to Vegeta, expecting another handshake. Vegeta glared at him and made a face that clearly said he'd rather let Kakkarot win a fight.

            Slightly taken aback, the principal straightened his tie nervously.

            "Well then, shall we go inside?" 

            He didn't wait for an answer, just turned around and led the four remaining full-blooded Saiyans into the school. That poor man…

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "Now, let's get started," the principal stated, sitting down in a chair next to the school's counselor, another stereotypical person. She had a small body frame, wore glasses, had black hair tied up in a tight bun and brown eyes, and smiled gently at all four of them. 

            "As you know from the letter we sent home, both of your children were caught fighting yesterday during recess. We're all here to find out what the source of the problem is and-"

            "Who won?" Vegeta interrupted.

            "W-what?"

            Who won the fight?"

            The principal fidgeted with his tie again and cleared his throat.

            "Well, um, sir, it doesn't really matter who won, but I believe the two were separated before any 'winning' could be done,"

            Both Kris and Vegeta snorted in disgust. Vegeta leaned back in the chair. The counselor leaned forward.

            "Did you…" she said softly. "_want_ your child to win?"

            Vegeta gave her a look that clearly asked if she had lost her mind. 

            "Of course," he answered. Did she think he wanted her to lose? What was wrong with this woman?

            The counselor put on her most friendly expression and turned to the principal. 

            "I think I can handle it from here sir," she said. He nodded, got up, and left. 

            "Now," she began, turning back to Vegeta. "Why do you want her to win? Are you afraid that if she lost, people would think less of you as a father?"

            "What the hell?!" he bellowed. Kris cringed, Ranu glanced warily at him and Goku was preparing to physically restrain the angry Vegeta from blowing things up. The counselor didn't bat an eye, just continued smiling sweetly. 

            "Do you get angry like this often? How about you, little Kris? Do you ever feel… angry? Like you could hit someone?" she asked in an eerie tone. 

            Kris squirmed uncomfortably. She tried to think of the right answer. 2 times 2 was… no, that wasn't the question… but where were the flashcards? Dr. Toshika had always used flashcards for her. Kris stayed silent. Vegeta grabbed her hand and abruptly dragged her to the door. 

            "Come one brat. I don't care how much the woman yells, I'm not staying here any longer," he said. And, just like that, both of them walked out the door and left. 

            Ranu glanced over at the counselor to see her reaction. She sighed in regret, but turned her gaze away from the closed door to Ranu and smiled again. He suddenly had the urge to run out the door after Kris and never come back. Heck, the woman was even beginning to freak Goku out!

            "Well, that was unfortunate," she began. "But we'll find the root of this aggression yet!"

            Both remaining Saiyans sweat-dropped. 

            "Now, you are Ranu's father, correct?"

            "Not exactly…"

            "Then you're his stepfather! Well well, that must be the problem then!"

            "But I'm not-"

            However, before Goku could explain, the counselor had already turned to Ranu and was ignoring Goku. 

            "Ranu?" she said softly. Ranu fidgeted and glanced around as if looking for an escape route. 

            "Is that it? Is that why you fight?" she asked softly. "Because you're angry that your daddy left?"

            Ranu blinked, confused. He fought because it was fun. Because he wanted to get stronger. And how could he be angry at someone he had never met? It just didn't make sense and he was getting more and more confused and uncomfortable under the intent gaze of the counselor. He looked at Goku for some hint as to how he should respond, but the counselor caught the look. 

            "Oh, don't worry! I'm sure he won't be angry with you for talking about your biological father, will you Mr. Son?"

            "Uh…" Goku wasn't sure how to respond to that. This was getting strange fast, and neither of them wanted to be there, being interrogated by such a cheerful… interrogator. 

            "Um, look, we kind of have to leave now," Goku said and stood up to go. The counselor sighed.

            "Very well," she conceded. "But…" she paused and gave both a look that would have scared the evil out of the King of Demons. Ranu squeaked and hid behind Goku's leg. 

            "I trust that there will be no more fighting. Understood?"

            "Both nodded meekly. She smiled sweetly again.

            "Gook! You may leave now."

            They ran out the door and out of the school. They stopped in the playground. Ranu breathed a sigh of relief, then looked up at Goku. 

            "Uncle?" he asked. Goku looked down at him.

            "What is it?"

            "Can we go home now? The scary lady might come out after us."

            Goku chuckled and picked Ranu up and set him on his shoulders. Ranu grinned in delight and grabbed onto a couple spikes of Goku's hair for added security as he took off from the school. Normally Goku would have used the Instantaneous Movement to get home, but he knew that Ranu liked it when he was sort-of flying. Not under his own power, but still… They flew in silence, save from the wind rushing past them. 

            "Uncle?" Ranu asked over the wind.

            "What?"

            "Can you teach me how to fly?"

            Goku thought for a moment before responding.

            "Maybe when you're older. I don't think you have enough ki yet."

            Ranu pouted a little at that. He thought he was old enough. The pout instantly disappeared as another question popped into his mind.

            "Uncle?"

            "Yeah?"

            "That scary lady back there… what did she mean when she asked me if I was angry about my daddy leaving?"

            They were at the Son household by then. Goku landed lightly in front of the door. He didn't know how to answer that question. 

            "I'm not sure," he said finally. "How about you ask Chichi? I'm sure she'll know."

            Ranu seemed happy with that answer, and they walked into the house. Gradually, as the day went on, he forgot all about asking the question, and Goku wasn't about to bring it up again. Ranu wouldn't remember again until the weekend when Kris slept over.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            It was after dinner on Saturday and Kris and Ranu were sparring outside the house. After a few rounds of fighting (with Kris winning most of the time) they both took a break and leaned against a tree, drinking a bottle of water and munching on some nutrition bars  while they caught their breath. 

            Kris turned to Ranu to gloat some more about her victory. She opened her mouth… and closed it again. Ranu was staring up at the sky, a half-eaten nutrition bar lying in his hand, forgotten. Kris stared at him, but he didn't notice.

            'He looks so sad…' Kris thought, looking at his face. 

            'Should I say something?' she wondered. 'He looks like he's going to cry. He's never cried before. At least I think he hasn't. I don't want him to cry!'

            "Kris?"

            She jumped in surprise but recovered quickly.

            "What?"

            He was still looking at the sky.

            "You said once you remembered your mommy and daddy," he said. Kris recalled saying that during one of their previous sleepovers. She considered arguing about remembering her father as she only fuzzily recalled him, but decided against it.

            "Yeah?" she replied. What was he getting at?

            He turned his head away from the sky overhead and faced Kris. She inhaled sharply at the look in his eyes and felt her heart almost stop. He really _was_ about to cry! She had never seen him cry about anything, though he had seen her cry once or twice. It just felt wrong to see him so sad. He was normally so happy, no matter what.

            "I don't remember them," he said.

            "Remember who?" Kris asked. Ranu bit his lip slightly and looked at the ground.

            "My parents," he whispered. Before Kris could respond, he continued. 

            "I know I would miss them a lot if I could remember, but I can't, and I think maybe that's worse. I know you miss your mom and dad a lot, but I can't even remember what mine were like! What if they hated me, and that's why they sent me away?"

            He was in tears now and his voice cracked with more unshed. He turned his head away.

            "What if… what if…" he couldn't even continue anymore, just let the tears fall and restrained the sobs that were threatening to overcome him as best he could.

            He suddenly felt a pair of arms encircle his torso and pull him. He looked up, bewildered, and saw Kris pulling him into a hug. He let her and once she started shushing him and telling it was all right he laid his head on her shoulder and allowed the hiccupping sobs to escape from his throat. 

            Kris rubbed Ranu's back comfortingly, like she had seen Bulma do for Bra when one of her favorite toys broke and she was crying. Her mind raced, desperately trying to think of something to quiet Ranu's sobbing. She couldn't stand seeing him so sad! She closed her eyes and thought hard.

* * Flashback * *

            She had her head buried into a pillow to muffle the sobs that erupted from her throat and made it feel raw. She was shaking and sweating from the aftershock of the visions that haunted her mind at night. She shook her head, as if trying to shake the bad dreams out of her head, and screamed into her pillow.

            "Dammit brat, do you ever _not_ cry at night?"

            Kris gasped and looked up from the fabric of her pillow. Vegeta stepped into the room, arms crossed and frowning. She turned back to the soaked pillow in shame at being caught crying again. She bit her lip, angry with herself for being so weak, especially in front of her uncle. 

            She felt the bed shift and cautiously looked up again. Vegeta was sitting at the edge of the bed, watching her. She glanced back at the pillow. She heard Vegeta exhale in something resembling a sigh and looked up once again, surprised, when two hands grabbed her around the middle and lifted her up, shortly afterwards depositing her in her uncle's lap and holding her there. 

            Kris looked up at Vegeta's face for some clue as to what was going on. She got not clue at all.

            "Go back to sleep." Vegeta commanded.

            "But-" she whimpered.

            Vegeta growled and Kris bowed her head. It was an unspoken language between the two. The growl was a warning and a reminder that he could force her to go to sleep if he wished to, and Kris's reply was that she was sorry and would not be rebellious. It was a simple form of communication, but it worked well enough for their purposes. 

            "Look brat," Vegeta said after a few moments of silence. "I'll help you get back to sleep. But only for tonight. Understand? I won't ever do this again, and you are not to speak of this to anyone."

            Kris blinked in confusion but nodded anyway. She closed her eyes and curled up as best she could with Vegeta still holding on to her, trying to comply to her uncle's command to go back to sleep. However, her eyes shot back open when she heard a familiar song in an entirely different voice. 

            She glanced upwards and saw something that she probably wouldn't ever see again. Her uncle, who hardly spoke an affectionate word to _anyone_ (as far as she knew), was _singing_! She blinked a few times in shock, then suddenly grinned and shut her eyes again. 

            She felt special. Of course, she didn't know that he had done the same thing for Bra, and even Trunks when he was younger. The song was always Saiyan in origin, because he really didn't know any others, and just barely remembered the one lullaby. Coincidentally, it was the same song Kris's mother had sung to her all the time. Slowly, the song did what it was meant to do and Kris fell asleep.

* * End Flashback * *

            Kris opened her eyes again. Ranu was hugging her back now, and his crying had dwindled down to an occasional hiccup. Kris bit her lip nervously, gathered up her courage, took a deep breath, and started singing. It was the same song of course. It was the only one she knew, and it worked anyway. Besides, she thought it would help soothe Ranu.

            He sniffled and leaned against her, listening to the song. His eyelids got heavier and slowly shut. He vaguely felt his consciousness slip into oblivion and fell asleep. All that crying had taken a lot out of him, and after all, his energy level had already been low from sparring. 

            Kris stopped singing when she felt Ranu fall asleep. Now that she thought about it, she was feeling a bit tired too… maybe she had eaten too much during dinner… her head fell onto Ranu's shoulder and she joined him in sleep.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ .  ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            Click. Whhrrrrrr…..

            Click. Whhhrrrrr….

            "Chichi? What are doing with the camera?"

            "Shh! You're going to wake them up!"

            Goku peered over his wife's shoulder to see what she was photographing.

            "Um… Chi?" he whispered, mindful of the warning not to wake the sleepers. 

            "Hm?"

            Click. Whhhrrrrr…

            "Why are you taking pictures of Kris and Ranu sleeping?"

            She lowered the camera from her face, and Goku could see that she had shiny yellow stars in her eyes. He recognized that look and backed away a little bit, just to be sure…

            "Just look at them! They're_ adorable_! Their children will be so cute it'll rot the teeth out of you mouth just looking at them, I'm sure! After they're married, or course…" She lifted the camera back up and kept clicking pictures. 

            "Don't you think they're a little young still? I mean, they are only five,"

            She whirled around to face him and lowered the camera again. 

            "It's _never_ too early to plan for a wedding. Besides, you agreed to marry me when you were only ten."

            "But back then I thought a wedding was food…"

            "Oh? So you're saying I tricked you into marrying me?"

            "N-no, I didn't say that at all Chi!"

            "Then what were you saying?"

            "Um… nothing?"

            Chichi nodded once in agreement and  kept taking pictures, already planning on putting said photographs on the wedding invitations. After all, it was never too early to start planning.

Ha! Another chapter typed up! Alrighty now, here's my plans for the next month:

I'm redoing the first chapter to make it all pretty and everything. I'll probably go back and fix various things in other chapters too. I'm writing the next chapter! I've started on it, and all I'm going to tell you is this: the plot starts here (what semblance of a plot it is) and both of the kawaii little Saiyans are gonna be in high school. Mwahahahahahahaha!! Let the hormones rage! 


	9. Torn Memories

Ahem. I am alive. *waves* Hello! Disappointing as it is, this does not mean I am over my writer's block. This means I decided to get off my lazy ass and write. Oh yes, you didn't think someone could write with writer's block, did you? Well, I can. It's complete crap of course, but it's a chapter! Apparently, the quality of my story doesn't matter to anyone. How do I know this? My only reviewer. Here is the review, in its entirety:  
  
"pretty good but i want them to get mad and go ssj"  
  
I'll get right on that.  
  
On to other things. This chapter is meant to just get the damn thing over with. I'm not in the best of moods right now, can you tell? I can't promise a long chapter, but it will explain Ranu's origin. Sort of anyway. I thought about this for awhile, and decided to stick with my original plans for the character. Live with it.  
  
Chapter 10: Torn Memories  
  
Kris opened her eyes slightly as she felt someone lift her up. She looked up sleepily and blinked at Goku's face as he carried both her and Ranu into the house and to Ranu's room, tucking them into bed, all without loosening Kris and Ranu's grip on each other.  
She yawned, unconcerned, and snuggled closer to the still-sleeping Ranu, closing her eyes. She slowly drifted back to sleep.  
  
* * Dream * *  
  
An infant Konora blinked open her eyes and her tail twitched in annoyance as sounds from the next room wake her from her nap. She yawns widely and rolls over onto her stomach and, with some difficulty, gets up onto all fours and crawls over to the side of the playpen-like thing she is trapped inside.  
She watches, interested, as her mother and father walk in, followed by a man with unruly-looking spiky hair and a scar across his face.  
"It's been awhile, hasn't it Bardock?" her father asks. "What's kept you from visiting? Your mate been pestering you again?" He grinned and elbowed the man, Bardock, in the side playfully. Bardock smiled and shook his head.  
"Nah," he replied. "I've been busy with my crew. In fact, I can't stay here very long, I have to get ready for the next mission."  
"Really?" Konora's mother asked. "Which planet are you and your crew going to?"  
He grinned.  
"Planet Kanassa." He replied, looking very proud of himself.  
"Well, best of luck to you," her father said. "Don't get yourself killed though. After all, if you die, who'll be left to bring our daughter's future mate over?"  
"Speaking of which," Konora's mother said, walking over to her. She leaned over and tapped her daughter on the nose with the tip of her tail and smiled as Konora giggled and lifted on arm unsteadily to try and grab the furry brown appendage.  
"Hey, Bardock," her father said. "Why don't you put him in the pen with her? You know, just to see how well they get along at first."  
Bardock looked uncertain for a moment, but eventually nodded and unwrapped the infant that he had in his arms from the blanket that had efficiently pinned the babe's limbs and kept it quiet. He placed the infant into the pen, in the opposite corner from Konora.  
"He doesn't look half-bad Bardock. I heard he's got a decent power level too," Konora's father said, stepping up to be next to the pen, watching both of the small Saiyans blink at each other. "Is he going to stay on planet?"  
Bardock shook his head.  
"Nah," he said. "His mother is sending him on a mission sometime soon. Says it'll be good for him, might toughen him up a little. I'm inclined to agree. He ain't exactly tough."  
"Say, why exactly are you taking care of the kid anyway? You're only his grandfather, shouldn't Raditz be looking after him?"  
"Heh," Bardock replied. "Raditz let me borrow him. My mate's pregnant again, and she wouldn't let me back in the house until I 'learned how to take care of a young child properly'. I guess she wants me to take better care of this next one than I did with Raditz." He shrugged.  
Konora stared at the new person who had intruded her territory. He stared back, undaunted. Both were waiting for the other one to make a move.  
"Oh, come on already!" Konora's mother exclaimed, exasperated. "Here!" she threw some random toys into the pen between them.  
The little boy's face lit up with delight at the sight of all the toys and he quickly set to work playing with them. Konora made a tiny sound of shock. Those were her toys! Not his! She crawled over to him and snatched the toy from his grip. He squeaked in surprise, and then snatched it back. Konora did the same. It went back and forth for awhile, until they both hung on and pulled. With their teeth.  
RI-IIPP!  
Both fell backwards, half of the plush toy in each of their mouths. They both blinked slowly, staring at the half they had. Konora let her half drop out of her mouth. She moved herself into a sitting position and clumsily picked up the half she had. She whimpered a little. That had been one of her favorites! Now it was gone. Tears started to well up in her eyes and she sniffled and whimpered louder.  
The adults had left the room for a moment to discuss something, so none of them could hear Konora's whimpering. The little boy let go of his half and looked confusedly at her.  
"M'yeh?" he squeaked out. As a general rule, most Saiyan infants learned how to speak a few basic words if they were to remain on the planet. It made life a lot easier for everyone when the parents could have their infant tell them what was wrong with them. The little boy had just made the sound for a question. In essence, he asked her what was wrong.  
Konora hiccupped a couple times before she started all-out bawling. Not at the top of her lungs, but enough that it disturbed the boy. He started whimpering as well, before he was crying too. The adults came back in.  
"Oh great," Konora's mother groaned, plucking the halved toy from the pen and tossing it side. She picked Konora up and patted her back comfortingly.  
"Shh, it's okay Konora. I can get you another one."  
Bardock watched her and imitated what she did with his own grandson. He may as well try and learn how to handle children, if his mate was going to have another one.  
"Hey," he said softly to the little boy. "Quiet down. Be quiet Ranu."  
Eventually, both stopped crying and wanted to crawl around again. They put the infants back into the pen and Konora's mother left to prepare some formula in feeding bottles for both of them. She hoped they would both calm down a little with some food in their stomachs.  
"Whew," Bardock said, slumping down into a chair nearby. "I don't know if I can handle another brat running around. I thought it was bad enough with Raditz, but if I have to hang around this next brat all the time. maybe I'll just have it sent on a purging mission. It can come back when it's full grown,"  
Konora's father chuckled, and her mother came back with two bottles.  
"There you go little ones," she said, making sure both little Saiyans were situated and happily sucking down their lunch before she sat down next to her mate. They were quickly engaged in a conversation with Bardock.  
Konora quickly finished the bottle and dropped it. She felt something hit her leg and she looked down at it to discover it was another bottle! What luck! It was half-empty, but that didn't matter. She hurriedly picked it up and. she looked at the boy whom she had just noticed was directly in front of her, large black eyes innocently looking at her, the bottle, her, then the bottle.  
"Ne'da." he said. He was asking for the milk back. Konora frowned and thought for a moment. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a small whimper and a growl. She looked up again and saw that the boy was looking at her with pleading eyes and his stomach was growling. There was something about the eyes that just made up her mind for her. She rolled the bottle to him.  
He squeaked in happiness and sucked down the contents of the bottle as fast as he could. Konora watched, interested, as he discarded the now- empty bottle. He smiled a little at her and Konora noticed that his eyes sparkled when he did that. Abruptly, she yawned. That warm milk in her stomach was making her drowsy, and being only an infant, she couldn't fight the sleepiness. She lay down on her side and curled up, her eyelids shutting slowly. She weakly fluttered them open for a moment when she felt something warm and soft snuggle up against her. It was Ranu, who was also futilely struggling to stay awake for a few seconds longer. With a small sigh, Konora fell asleep, unconsciously snuggling closer to him for warmth.  
  
* * End Dream * *  
  
"Kris?" A soft voice filtered into her mind, disturbing her sleep. She made a small sound of protest and clung more tightly to the warm, soft thing she had in her arms.  
"Ack! Kris, don't choke me! You're gonna crush my ribs!" the voice hissed, breath rushing into her ear. She scrunched up her face, but loosened her grip a little. She sucked contentedly at the furry thing in her mouth and purred. She felt like she had done this before… bits and pieces of the dream floated into her mind. She groggily opened her eyes, blinking away the sleep. She was greeted by the wide-awake face of Ranu. He grinned a little sheepishly at her.  
"Hullo." he said. He glanced at something. "Um, Kris-chan? Could you maybe. let go of my tail? It's time to get up, and we'll miss breakfast if you don't get up soon."  
Kris blinked and looked at the thing that was in her mouth. It was…  
"Ewww!"  
She shoved the saliva covered tip of Ranu's tail away from her and her mouth, which had apparently betrayed her in her sleep. Ranu frowned.  
"Well, I didn't ask you to start sucking on my tail!" he protested, slightly offended at her disgust.  
"Bleh," Kris responded, sticking her tongue out.  
"Whadda ya mean, 'bleh'?" he asked, scowling at her. She made a face  
at him.  
"I mean 'bleh, you had your tail in my mouth'!"  
"That wasn't my fault! You're the one who put your slobbery mouth all over my tail!"  
"Did not!"  
"Did to!"  
"Not!"  
"To!"  
"Not infinity!" Kris finished with a smug smirk that was reminiscent of Vegeta's. Ranu grinned mischievously in response and Kris gave him a wary look. His hands abruptly shot out from his sides and mercilessly tickled Kris. She squealed helplessly and thrashed around on the bed, throwing the sheets everywhere.  
Ranu grinned and pinned her down, still tickling. When she started to turn blue he stopped, but kept her pinned, lest she try to obtain revenge. She panted for a minute.  
"You… you..." she panted, trying to think up a good insult while getting her breath back.  
"Ah, come on Kris-chan," Ranu said, looking disappointed. "Can't you just have some fun for once? You're always so angry all the time... can't ya just relax and play?"  
Kris looked away, having caught her breath already. Ranu couldn't help but notice that she looked sad all of a sudden, and he mentally berated himself about it.  
'Great!' he thought to himself. 'Look what you did now! You made her sad! Way to go, she was happy just a second ago, but you just had to bring up something to make her sad again!'  
Kris pushed against Ranu, wanting to curl up into a ball again, but he wouldn't let her. He looked concerned, but she told herself she wouldn't care.  
"Sorry," he whispered. She wanted to tell him he had nothing to be sorry about, that it was her fault she was being so stubborn, but she couldn't get it past her throat. She just attempted to curl up again.  
"K-kris?" Ranu mumbled. She glanced at him. "Why… why don't you like to play with anybody? I mean, sometimes you'll play tag and stuff with me, but… why are you so sad all the time Kris? Why..." he trailed off and his grip on her loosened. She didn't make any attempt at escape however. She felt tears start to form in her eyes. Why couldn't she just make Ranu happy? Why did she have to be this way, and make Ranu sad along with her? He shouldn't be dragged in this, only she should have to be sad. He didn't deserve to be sad, he hadn't done anything wrong… he should be happy. That's the only way he should be. Kris let her thoughts become more forceful. She turned back to look him in the face.  
"…sorry..." she whispered. Ranu smiled a little at her and she gave him a slight smile of reassurance back. His head abruptly jerked towards the door.  
"Pancakes!" he shouted, and leapt off of her. She rolled her eyes and sniffed the air. Pancakes were being made downstairs along with… bacon? Kris jumped out of bed and raced after Ranu, who was currently halfway down the stairs and chanting "pancakes!".  
  
~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~  
  
After breakfast and about three hours of playing, both little Saiyans decided to take a rest break in front of the television. Ranu decided to go get some drinks while Kris lay upside down on the couch. He walked into the kitchen and saw Chichi washing some dishes and humming to herself. He paused and wrinkled his cute little nose in deep thought. After a moment, his face relaxed, his mind made up. He changed course and headed for Chichi instead of the refrigerator. He tugged on the hem of her shirt.  
"Hm?" she asked, looking down from the dishes. "Oh, it's you Ranu!  
What is it?"  
He looked thoughtful again and fidgeted nervously.  
"Well..." he started. "Aunt Chi… um... w-what's a 'mate'?"  
Chichi blinked a couple times then closed her eyes and put the dish she was cleaning down. She stayed that way for a couple seconds and Ranu was getting worried. She sighed and opened her eyes finally. Ranu looked at her warily.  
"Come on," she said, grabbing Ranu's little hand and leading him over to the table. He sat down in a chair across from her once she let go of his hand.  
"Now, what do you already know about 'mates'?" she asked. She had to get a good idea of what he had already been told, if anything.  
"Nothin'. 'Cept you and Bulma-san keep saying me an' Kris'll be good  
ones."  
Chichi mentally groaned. He really shouldn't have overheard that conversation, of all things… she sighed again and folded her hands on top of the table.  
"Mates are…" she started and trailed off. How to explain this and not damage his fragile little mind…  
"Mates are two people who like each other a lot. But not like your friends, it's kind of. more than friends. Understand?"  
Ranu scrunched up his face again, then nodded. That kind of made sense.  
"Like me and Goku. We're mates. And Bulma and Vegeta." She offered examples.  
"And Gohan-san and Videl-san?" he asked. Chichi nodded. Good, he understood now.  
He made a disgusted face.  
"Does that mean me an' Kris'll have to kiss? 'Cause that's icky!" he exclaimed, sticking his tongue out to better express his disgust at the idea. Chichi chuckled.  
"I'm sure you'll get used to the idea," she said. "Speaking of Kris, where is she?" Knowing that the Saiyan girl was related to Vegeta, and therefore too mischievous for her own good, she was probably in trouble this very second.  
"She was watching TV last time I saw her. I was supposed to bring back drinks."  
"Well, go and get the drinks. Kris has to go back home in a few  
hours."  
"Awwww...."  
  
And there ya go. For people who are confused, I'll make what was just  
revealed simple: Ranu is the son of Raditz, and Konora and Ranu were  
going to be in an arranged marriage to each other. There. You didn't  
think I'd throw in that whole "Uncle Goku" thing for no reason, now did  
you? Heh, of course, Kris doesn't really remember any of that, except for  
a foggy memory of some Goku-ish looking person introducing her to Ranu  
when she was an infant.  
The whole "what's a mate" thing has something to do with the story too,  
but you'll have to wait. As of late, I said to myself: "To HELL with  
plot!" so, as you can see, there is none. Deal with it or give me one.  
Again, if ANYONE has any ideas on what to do next with this story,  
leave a review or e-mail me. Heck, just leave a review anyway.


	10. Cotton Candy and Kiddy Rides

Ahem. I'm alive. Surprised? I am. Inspiration has struck me! *winces* Ow. Anyway, I have decided to treat you all to a new chapter. Isn't that nice of me. Again, this is a case of me pulling my hair out in frustration and saying "To hell with any plot!! It's _my_ story, I can do what I want with it!" And well, here you go. 

            I'd like to thank my two reviewers. Kiwi93089 and Skye-Chan. *takes a deep breath* THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!! *covers you both in a mountain of cookies and various plushies* Did I mention that I really like reviews? ^_^

I'm currently writing this during a thunderstorm. It's monsoon season! *cheers* I love rain. It'd be more fun if there was lightning though. Oh well. 

Chapter 11: Cotton Candy and Kiddy Rides

            "Kakkarot, remind me again how we got suckered into this."

            Goku scratched the back of his head thoughtfully as they walked through a crowd of screaming children and their parents, two happy 5-and-a-half year olds jumping up and down next to them. 

            "Well, Chichi threatened me with no food, and Bulma threatened you with a guinea pig. At least, I think she did. That's all I could understand from everything she was yelling at you," he answered. 

            Vegeta snorted. He knew very well what she had meant by "guinea pig". It meant testing out her various inventions on him. He shuddered.

            "Uncle Veggie!"

            He ignored the high-pitched squeal and the tug on his hand.

            "UncleVeggieuncleveggieuncleveggieuncleveggie!!!"

            He felt his right eyelid threaten to start twitching. 

            "What." He answered.

            "Can we go and get some food now?"

            "Yeah! Food!" Ranu cheered.

            "Pll-eeaasse Uncle Veggie?"

            "Pll-eeaasse Vegeta-san?"

            "Pll-eeaasse Vegeta?"

            Vegeta stared in disbelief at Goku, who was copying the two children, big sparkly innocent eyes and all. Goku grinned at him and then went back to mock-pouting, which Kris was doing quite convincingly. Ranu was trying and failing miserably. 

            "Fine."

            "Yaaaaaayyyyyy!!" the other three Saiyans cheered, the smaller two running around in circles. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "AND DON'T YOU DARE COME BACK!!"

            Goku ducked out of the restaurant, the two chibis under one arm and the other arm dragging a ranting Vegeta out the door. 

            "It's your own damn fault for not having enough food! What the hell is wrong with you people?! The whole point of food is to _eat it_! You have no right to throw us out! Do you have any idea who I am?!" 

            A large sweat drop rolled down Goku's head and he swiftly dragged a still-yelling Vegeta ("If you idiots knew who saved your pathetic asses and your stupid planet half the time, you'd be _begging_ me to eat that slop you call food!") to an empty bench underneath a tree. Flinging Vegeta onto it (gently enough not to break the bench though) Goku set the two kids down next to him and sat down. Vegeta snarled at him, but he ignored it and instead gazed up through the tree's leaves at the sky. No one said anything after that. 

Vegeta had his arms crossed in front of him and glared at anyone who got within 7 feet of him. Kris and Ranu were busy poking each other and stifling their giggles, and Goku was still watching the clouds. The poking stopped after a few minutes.

"So…" Kris started. Goku and Vegeta looked at her. "What're we having for dessert?"

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "Well, this map says we're here," Goku said, pointing to the little star that marked where they were on a large map of the park. 

            "Brilliant observation Kakkarot. Did the 'You are Here' symbol give it away?" 

            Goku ignored him, having already gotten used to the insults long ago. He turned to the two children, who were gnawing on gigantic lollipops. 

            "So, which rides do you guys want to go on?" 

            Kris tilted her to one side, confused. 

            'Rides?' she thought, giving her candy a few new bite marks absent-mindedly. 

            "Ooh!" Ranu spoke up. "I wanna go on all of 'em!" 

            "You can't," Vegeta said. "There are height restrictions. You're too small."

            Ranu pouted and looked thoroughly disappointed. 

            "Oh…" he said sadly, nibbling his large piece-of-solidified-sugar-on-a-stick. 

            Kris paused, her own lollipop half-way in her mouth. 

            "Well," Goku said, trying to brighten up the mood, "There's always rides that don't have height restrictions,"

            Ranu brightened up instantly. 

            "Really?" he asked, eyes bright and shiny, tail wagging behind him. 

            Goku smiled and nodded at him.

            "All right!" Ranu cheered, jumping around in circles. While Goku tried to find the rides via the map, Vegeta watched the two slightly-hyperactive kids chase each other around. 

            "That hurt Kris!"

            "You should've kept your tail around your waist in the first place so it's _your fault!"_

            "Is not!"

            "Is too!"

            "Not!"

            "IS TOO!"

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~. ~ . ~ . ~

            "Here we are! Kiddy World!"

            While Ranu just about squealed with joy at all the bright happy things in front of him, Kris stared rather uneasily. 

            "Come on Kris-chan!" Ranu shouted, grabbing her hand and dragging her to the nearest ride, ignoring any protests. Their uncles followed them silently.

            The ride was called "Sparky's Rainbow World". Kris warily glanced at a giant animated plush dog near the entrance and scooted closer to Vegeta, who was waiting (along with Goku) behind her in the line for the ride. Ranu was just ahead of her, jumping up and down in place, a slightly glazed look on his face. Apparently the solidified-sugar-on-a-stick hadn't been absorbed well and he was starting to display the first symptoms of an all-out sugar rush. 

            The line moved quickly, and soon they were next in line for the ride. Kris had resorted to hiding behind Vegeta's leg and glaring at the giant dog. 

            "Yay yay yay yay yay!!!" Ranu squealed, still jumping up and down. 

            Finally, the car for the ride pulled up and its previous occupants left. 

            "Please keep all limbs inside the car at all times. Do not throw objects at any of the animated characters, and enjoy your trip through Sparky's Rainbow World," a park attendant droned on, watching as the four Saiyans climbed into the car (which had a cartoon dog head on the front) and pressing a button on the console in front of him once they had settled. The car rolled off onto its track.

            Cheerful music started to play from speakers placed all around the ride, and even from inside the car. Kris raised an eyebrow questioningly as they came into a room that simply radiated dumb happiness. Ranu ooh-ed and aaahh-ed at everything and Goku looked semi-happy as well. Vegeta's eyelid was twitching dangerously and Kris felt increasingly nauseous. All in all, the ride went smoothly up until-

            "HIYA! Do u want to B my fwiend?!"

            "FUCK OFF!!!"

            A large animated puppet had sprung up out of the ground on the side of the car and Vegeta had blasted the thing into oblivion, twitching in anger. Kris giggled whilst the other two occupants protested "Sparky's" untimely demise. 

Vegeta looked rather pleased with himself, up until they got off the ride and were confronted with both park security and the manager, who demanded they pay for damaging the ride. There was a lot of screaming and protesting, but they eventually got Vegeta's credit card from him and let them go. Vegeta kept muttering something about guinea pigs. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            After the next couple of rides (which Vegeta had managed to behave himself on) Kris was feeling slightly giddy and hysterical. She kept giggling at the oddest things, and Ranu wasn't helping either. He kept running around in circles and barking like a puppy (which Kris found hilarious). By now both Goku and Vegeta were getting slightly worried. 

            "All right guys, I think it's time to go back home now," Goku suggested. Sounds of protest commenced.

            "Hey, no whining, it's time to-"

            "Damnit brats we're leaving this hell-hole so I can get back to training and if I hear one more damned song I'm going to blast this place into oblivion, understand?!"

            Ranu gulped nervously and nodded. Kris just sighed and bowed her head, which abruptly snapped back up.

            "Can we go to the gift shop?!" she squealed.

            Vegeta winced. She had been unusually happy and somehow her voice had gotten a higher pitch because of it. 

            "Fine, the gift shop, then we are going home!"

            "Yaayy!!" Ranu cheered. Kris pumped a fist into the air.

            "Onward to the gift shop!" she yelled. Ranu yelled his approval and they both ran off, while Vegeta and Goku tried to keep up with them in the thick crowds.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            Two blurs of color abruptly knocked down the door and sped up the stairs, a door slamming behind them. Bulma and Chichi stared, only mildly surprised. Their attention was redirected to the door that had been knocked down as two more people walked in, though much more slowly than the two hyperactive Saiyans had. 

Vegeta dropped the armfuls of amusement park merchandise onto the floor and stormed off into the kitchen. Goku let his own bags full of useless junk drop to the floor and sank into a nearby chair, exhausted. 

            "So," Bulma said. "How'd it go?"

            Goku groaned.

            "I don't want to talk about it," he said tiredly.

            Bulma and Chichi glanced at each other.

            "That bad?"

            "Not _bad, just… I don't ever want to do that again."_

            "Oh. Well, that's alright, you won't have to,"

            Goku breathed a sigh of relief.

            "Now, there's this really nice skating rink that's having a family night tomorrow and I think it would be just perfect if-"

            Goku fainted and a distant-sounding thump signaled that Vegeta had overheard as well and was now unconscious. 

Well, that's that. *coughs* Now, for things you could care less about,

            I just got a DragonBallGT DVD, titled Proliferation. I watched the Japanese version first (thank Kami!) and I must say, it is entertaining. However, if you have any good opinion of the dubbed episodes, don't watch Funimations's version. Not only did they BUTCHER the opening "song" (Their song is more like rhythmic chanting trying to sound like rap) the voices of some characters (Goten and Videl most notably) are absolutely HORRIBLE. In short, FUNI has done it again. Everything they learned from the Saiyan saga through the Buu saga, they just shot down. They took Dragonball GT and murdered it, cut it into tiny unrecognizable pieces, urinated on it, then stuffed it into a pretty bag and threw it at the public. FUNImation, I hate you with all my heart and soul. Go to hell.

            In other news, I have gotten the game Legacy of Goku II, and I love it. I liked the first one, but the second one is much better. I just wish they had Raditz in it. Raditz was adorable as a super-deformed character. My favorite part of the game is when you go into Capsule Corp as Vegeta and get cookies from Mrs. Briefs. The cookie is almost as big as his head, and when he gets it, he holds it over his head with both hands and gets this really kawaii smile, then some triumphant music plays. I did that about 50 times. ^_^

            I don't know when my next chapter will be. You'll have to wait and find out.

            **_REVIEW, DARN YOU!!! YOU HEAR ME?! REVIEW!!_**


	11. The Little Ring

            5 years after the last chapter….

            "Kris Konora Briefs, if you don't get up this instant I'll…. I swear I'll cut off your tail! Don't test me, 'cause I will!"

            Kris groaned and stuck her arm out from under the sheets, waving Bulma away.

            "Yeah yeah… I'm up…." She muttered. She knew it wasn't a real threat, but it still wasn't wise to push Bulma's limited temper too far.

            As soon as she heard Bulma stomp out of the room muttering about "lazy pre-teen Saiyans" Kris dared to poke her head out from under the covers. Blinking a few times to restore her blurry vision, she glanced at the digital clock beside her bed. Opening her eyes wider she took in the numbers and let her groggy mind process the information. 

            "Crap." She mumbled, burying her face back into the pillow. With a "I really don't want to but I have to anyway" groan she slowly slid herself off of the bed until she slipped out from under the sheets and landed on the floor. 

            Yawning widely she crawled over to her dresser and got changed into her school uniform. 

            Not much had changed over the last five years. Earth seemed to be going through one of its rare times of relative peace, though you wouldn't know it by the way the few remaining Saiyans trained. Ranu and Kris were competing with each other for title of 3rd full-blooded Super Saiyan, but were still friends. All-in-all, everything was normal. As normal as it could be anyway. 

            "KRIS! ARE YOU READY FOR SCHOOL YET?!" 

            She snarled under her breath and stomped down the stairs.

            "Yes, I'm up! Happy now?!" she hissed. Bulma rolled her eyes at the attitude she got. It was a fairly normal occurrence, what with the Saiyan girl reaching the double-digits and all the time she spent with Vegeta. That and she was _always_ cranky in the morning. 

            "Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed today!" a cheerful voice announced. Kris turned her heated glare to the blue-haired twelve year old sitting at the kitchen table, happily finishing her meager breakfast of 3 bowls of cereal. Bra just grinned back, impervious to the effects of glaring.

 Kris growled irritably and grabbed a box of granola bars and stuffing it into her back pack, which had been left next to the counter. 

            "Stupid school…" she muttered.

            "You should feel lucky," Trunks said, looking up from his cup of coffee. "At least you don't have to work as Vice President for this place."

            "Both of you quit complaining!" Bulma snapped. Trunks cowered behind a newspaper he was pretending to read and Kris just snorted and put her back pack on. She walked out of the room.

            "Have a good day!" Bulma called out, her mood instantly changing from annoyed to cheerful. Kris grunted in response and walked out the front door. 

            "Hey! Where's Bra-chan?"

            Kris looked up from the pavement and glared at the gathering of people just outside the gate to Capsule Corp.'s front lawn. They didn't notice, just pressed themselves closer together and craned their necks, like Bra was hiding behind Kris or just out of their sight. 

           She snorted at them and walked off in a different direction. She came to the fence that quarantined the Capsule Corp. building from the rest of the world and easily jumped it. Landing on the sidewalk outside, she straightened her back pack on her shoulders and walked off in the direction of her school. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "Ms. Kris Briefs!"

            Kris cringed at the shrill voice, knowing what it meant.

            "Yes ma'am?" she asked as innocently as she could.

            "Would you mind explaining what all this is?"

            Kris peered at the paper her teacher had shoved into her face. She blinked a couple times, confused.

            "My… homework assignment?"

            "What's. All. This?" the teacher asked, emphasizing each word as if she were stupid and pointing to the scribbles on the margins of the paper.

            "It looks to me like graffiti, Ms. Briefs. Now, would you please explain to me the class rules, number 16?"

            Kris sighed, trying to remember. She glanced up at the ceiling.

            "The rule is, Ms. Briefs, that there are to be _no_ frivolous marks on any papers you turn in to me. Did you happen to forget that little rule?"

            Kris nodded.

            "Well, let's try to keep that in mind next time, shall we?"

            As the teacher walked off, Kris proceeded to bang her head quietly against her desk. She glanced at the paper once she was done and sighed. She had let her mind wander and started scribbling down the Saiyan alphabet onto her paper and handed it in without thinking. 

            She banged her head against the desk a few more times for good measure.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "So! How'd school go for you?" 

            Kris glared half-heartedly at Ranu and flopped down onto the Son's living room couch.

            "Ah. That good, huh?" Ranu replied, sitting down next to her feet and turning on the television. Kris groaned and turned to face the back of the couch.

            "I can't believe you still watch that crap," she said. Ranu pouted and looked insulted.

            "Yeah, well, I like Blue's Clues! Besides, if you can still carry around 'Mr. Snuggles', then I can watch kiddie shows!" he retorted. Kris just snorted in reply and pulled a throw-pillow over her head. Ranu sniffed back at her and turned his attention to the TV. 

            An hour passed.

            "…. Geez, I'm bored…." Kris commented from under her pillow, then promptly removed it from over her face and threw it. Ranu frowned at her for throwing things in the house (which he was yelled at for almost every other day).

            "How 'bout we go somewhere?" Kris offered and sat up. Ranu blinked in surprise.

            "Where?" he asked. Kris shrugged.

            "Anywhere. We could go to a store and get some candy and some toys. That'd be cool, right?"

            And as much as Ranu wanted to insist that it was wrong to leave the house without permission and without leaving a note telling where you had gone, not to mention raiding Mrs. Bulma's purse for money earlier in the day, the sweet promise of food and entertainment weakened his will considerably. He didn't stand a chance against the wonderful temptation of candy, toys, _and_ spending time with Kris. True, he spent time with her at school during lunch, but… it just wasn't the same. Not at all. 

            "Yep," Ranu nodded and grinned in a sneaky way. "Very cool."

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            "Ooh, stop here, stop here!" Ranu shouted. Kris complied, and they both landed on solid ground outside of a small store with vending machines in the front.

"Perfect," Kris purred, rubbing her hands together in an evil-plotting gesture. 

They pushed open the door and stepped inside. Kris grabbed a plastic hand basket and rushed off into the depths of the store with Ranu in tow.

She stopped in front of the candy aisle. Grinning in sheer delight, the two Saiyans ran into it, grabbing whatever they could get their hands on and placing it into the basket. After successfully raiding the place, Ranu followed Kris out of that aisle and into another. Lucky for them there were no other customers in the store at the moment, and the clerk at the front desk was far too interested in her PlayGirl magazine to pay attention. 

"Kris?" Ranu asked. "Where are we going? We already got the candy, aren't we leaving now?"

"No," Kris said. "We need a couple more things…"

Ranu glanced at her face and caught sight of what would later send most people into bouts of horrified shivering. Kris had on her "Evil Face of Doom and Torment". Ranu narrowed his eyes at her.

"Kris, what are you planning?" he demanded.

"…"

"Kris?"

"…"

"K… Kris?" he stuttered, becoming worried as the twisted grin on her face got wider.

"Don't worry so much, Ranu-kun," she said finally, still not looking directly at him. "Besides, we're already here."

Ranu looked at what they had stopped in front of. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"… worms, Kris?"

"Hehe… yes, worms… oh, it shall be so sweet, it shall…" Kris chuckled, talking more to herself than anyone else. Ranu sweatdropped and began gently tugging on her arm to lead her toward the cash register. At the last minute she lunged and caught two medium-sized buckets of bait worms and carried them happily to the counter to pay for that and all the candy.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

"I still don't know what you need the worms for Kris-chan," Ranu complained as they stepped out of the store. 

"Didn't I tell you to stop worrying about it earlier?" she replied, looking over the vending machines full of cheap plastic toys and gumballs. Ranu frowned at her again, then also turned to look at the wonders of cheaply-made plastic trinkets.

He tilted his head to look at Kris after a minute or so of searching.

"Kris? Do we have a quarter left over?"

She smirked, looking strangely like Vegeta in that moment, before she pulled out a handful of quarters she had swiped from the tip jar in the store. Ranu, being the naïve boy he was, had no knowledge of them being stolen and cheered at the new-found wealth.

Kris smiled back at him and placed a quarter in the machine, turning the handle slowly.

The contents of the machine shifted slightly and the metal trap door rattled.

Moments later, a toy in a plastic bubble container was removed completely from the machine, and both Saiyans looked curiously at it.

"…"

"…"

"… it's a ring."

It was not an expensive looking little thing, just a plastic band with a cheap imitation emerald imbedded in it to make it look more appealing. 

Kris scowled angrily at it for mocking her by not being what she wanted it to be.

"Well, we have more quarters, right?" Ranu said, grabbing a couple out of Kris's fist and taking his turn at the machine.

While he was busy emptying the vending machine, Kris continued her scowling at the ring contained in a bubble. She knew it was mocking her for being a girl. She just knew it. Quickly, without really thinking about it, she thrust it into Ranu's hands. 

"Here. You have it."

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

The next day was Friday. Kris was sitting in her desk at school, barely managing to keep her tail from wagging excitedly behind her. Sweet sweet Friday…

"Class! Listen up! I have your tests graded from Monday, and I must say, they were…" the teacher's voice became muffled as she leaned over to reach into her desk and retrieve the mentioned tests. Kris desperately tried to look as bored as possible. She fidgeted once as the teacher's hand went into the recesses of the drawer, then mentally berated herself for doing so, and sat still as a rock. 

She took on a predatory look and growled softly to herself. Yes, just reach in a bit further… 

"Ah! Here we are!" the teacher exclaimed, pulling out the test papers and passing them out.

Kris, having put on her impassive face, did not show any emotion at all. But internally, she was reeling in shock. What?! What had happened to the bucket of worms she had put in there this morning? What was going on?!

Needless to say, Kris spent the entire day thinking about the various different ways her plan could have been foiled. There was the one possibility that the teacher had already found it before Kris had returned to the classroom. But that wasn't likely, considering that the teacher hadn't smelt smug or satisfied with herself at any time that day. And it couldn't be anyone else, because she hadn't told anyone about her plan and had been extra careful about seeming normal, except for…

A burning rage began to eat away at Kris's stomach as she walked slowly back to Capsule Corp.

"How dare he…" she hissed furiously. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

"Hey Kris! What's up?"

He faltered a little at the look on her face.

Her eyes were narrowed and her face scrunched up. From the little bit of her eyes that was left uncovered, pure malice radiated out. He wasn't stupid. He knew it was directed at him.

"K-Kris, let me explain, o-okay?" he said, falling back into his old habit of stuttering because of the fear. It wasn't often that Kris was this angry, but when she was, he knew well enough to be afraid and seem as helpless as possible. It didn't pacify her, but it was enough to keep her from seriously injuring him.

"'Explain'? What's there to explain, Ranu-kun?" she purred in a low voice. He shivered. 

"K-Kris-chan, I just couldn't… you w-would have gotten in trouble!" he exclaimed.

"Since when have I cared about getting in trouble?!" she yelled. He faltered again.

"Ah… eh… but, Kris-chan-"

"SHUT UP!"

His eyes widened and he looked up from the floor to Kris's face. He was never this afraid, even when his aunt yelled at him for breaking things. Her face was contorted, her teeth bared in a silent snarl and her tail was let loose behind her, thrashing angrily and all the fur puffed out. He started shaking, even as he picked up on her scent and his instincts were telling him to either run away (which was hopeless because Kris was faster than him) or break down and start crying for forgiveness. 

He barely picked up on what was Kris was yelling toward him. He did notice however, when she dropped the bucket of worms onto the living room floor. He was thankful that Chichi was out shopping and his uncle and youngest cousin were out training somewhere… but still, he'd end up having to clean it up before they got home, and what was she yelling at him for, he was only trying to help her, she was going to get in trouble after all, and why. Was. She. Still. YELLING?

Something snapped.

"SHUT UP!"

Kris stopped in the middle of her tirade and stared.

"What the hell is _wrong with you?! I was only trying to help you, and you _shove it right back in my face_!"_

She didn't move, didn't even blink. Her tail stopped moving and hung limp, the fur flattening back down.

"Well, you know what, I'm tired of it. Get out Kris."

Kris blinked and didn't move. Ranu snarled threateningly at her, baring his teeth. Her instincts kicked in and she moved for the door. But, at the last second, she turned around and sneered at him.

"If you're so tired of it… then fine. You'll never have to get tired of me again. _Good-bye."_

Slamming the door, she turned back around and blasted off into the sky. She didn't head toward Capsule Corp. She needed to think, to get away for awhile, even if it was only a few hours. Besides, everyone would be suspicious if she came back after so short a time and furious. They would ask too many questions, and gods, she was so sick of their damn questions! 

She headed deep into the forest.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Ranu glared at the closed door for a few minutes, fuming. How dare she! He was only trying to help her out, and then what does she do? Comes in and yells at him! Then, when he retaliates, she walks out and slams the door! Not only did he have to clean up the mess on the living room floor, now he had to fix the door too!

A calmer part of his mind was aching as it recalled her last words. 

'You'll never have to get tired of me again. Good-bye.'

He knew she wasn't coming back.

Gods, am I evil. =) Nice twist in the story, ne? I certainly like it. Again, sorry for the lack of updates. But hopefully I'll be more active. I do have a certain plan for the next chapter. I know how this is going to be resolved. And I also have a vague idea for a filler chapter, back when they're still cute five years olds. But it's still very fuzzy. Maybe it'll turn into a full one-shot mini-fic and be a shoot-off of this one. Hm. I seem to have a thing for songfics all of a sudden. 

Shameless self-plugs:

Forgotten: my twist on the truth behind the Saiyans and Tuffles origins. One shot.

Condemned: Vegeta's POV. Not a very original idea, but neither is this fic. The same old theme; Vegeta is depressed, commits suicide. But believe me, this one is different from the other ones you've read. One shot song-fic.

Confession: 3 chaptered fic on the Brolli movie (#8), from Brolli's POV. Covers much more than what's in the movie. Based off of my observations (watched the movie 7 times.) on Brolli's state of mind and actions.

Nothing Good: DBZ poetry. Short and sweet. Just like little Veggie! ^_^ Anyway, it's shonen-ai (which is boy love. Two guys that like eachother. Yes. I am a perverted fangirl. I now embrace it.) and it's also from Vegeta's POV. Based off the quote from the episode where Goku and Vegeta are inside Buu's head, and Vegeta, choosing the opposite path from Goku, says "When I'm together with you, nothing good ever happens."

It would make me a VERY happy little author if you reviewed either this story or one of the mentioned above. All of them would be nice (meaning I'd have a heart-attack from the joy), but I'm not holding my breath.


	12. Interlude 1: Things Best Forgotten

Sorry for the delay in getting the next part of the plot out. I'm stuck on one part, so I need to wait until my Inspiration Fairy feels up to helping me out with that. 

Shameless Self-Advertising: I have an account on DeviantArt.com under the name saiyajinkrys. There are a couple drawings I've done of Kris and Ranu up there. Go check them out and tell me what you think of them, okay? ^_^

Interlude 1: Things Best Forgotten

            "Dammit man, what were you thinking?!"

            Kris sleepily blinked open her eyes and sat up, looking around. There wasn't much to be looked at. The foot of her mattress, the three inch thick steel door, complete with dents all in it, and bright artificial light shining in through a four-by-four inch window, also in the door and also roughly three inches thick.

            "I was thinking, sir, that perhaps it was about time to stop focusing on tests that have already been done and begin the real experiments. However, because of your strict rules regarding the treatment of #54763, I was unable to do any chemical testing-"

            "Thank God for _that_!"

            Kris woke up completely and recognized the voices filtering in and disturbing her sleep. 

            'Dr. Toshy!' she thought happily, shortening his actual name, Toshika, down to a more manageable amount. At least for a four year old. 

            She jumped off of her mattress and ran up to the door, scrambling up it, using the dents as foot and hand holds, until she was peeking out of the window. She usually waved at the doctor and he would wave back. She waved, but this time, Dr. Toshika's back was turned to her. 

            He was arguing with another man, another one of the scientists. Dr. Toshika was the head scientist in the compound, but this other man was, shall we say, second-in-command. 

            Thus, he had felt perfectly justified in performing a social experiment while Toshika was on a vacation. (A/N: Refer to Chapter 6.)

            "Now now sir, no need to get angry. I said I _was_ unable to do any chemical testing."

            "Just what does that mean?" Toshika demanded.

            The man sighed, sounding exasperated.

            "It means, my dear colleague, that if you do not step down from your position as Head of this compound, I may have to resort to more extreme measures."

            There was a shocked pause, then he continued.

            "Do you not see the impact the results of those tests would have old man?! This creature could be the secret to curing the world's diseases! It could even be used as a biological weapon of sorts! Or at least a breeding-"

            "You're insane!" Toshika shouted, eyes blazing. 

            Kris just stared, uncomprehending of what was just said. She got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and whimpered, tail tucking itself between her legs. 

            "For God's sake, she's just a child! How you could even think of doing that to a living being such as her?! Monkeys and lab mice are one thing, but to-"

            "So is that a refusal?" came the cold response, the man narrowing his eyes.

            Kris shivered and ducked her head so that only one eye could see out the window.

            "_Yes, it is a refusal! The day I turn this laboratory over to you is the day I-"_

            Kris's eyes dilated to an inhuman size and she fell off of the door.

            'No,' she thought. 'No no no nonononononoNO!'

            Bits of gore slid down the outside of the pane of glass. But the pieces of scalp with hair still attached remained, becoming tangled in the blood and drying there. 

            What felt like hours later, it was wiped off by a hand holding a cloth. Like it was a accident to be cleaned up afterwards. There wasn't a trace of it left. The clean up was so thorough that even she couldn't smell the blood and brain cavity fluid when they led her out of her room the next day to begin her first day of injections. First, there were the steroids, then the depressants, then, after they had run out of ideas, seemingly random substances that left her sick for days afterwards. 

            That wasn't true. There were still traces of the murder scene left. The pieces of brain and the blood sliding down the window pane was still in her head. It was there, waiting to be replayed over and over again during the fever-like side effects of the drugs, alongside the fragmented remnants of a dead planet.

            It was still there. It was always there. 

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, and the delay in the next part of the plot. But you should know how I am by now, so it shouldn't come as a surprise. 

Please review!


	13. Buckets of Worms and SaiyaGo Lessons

Er, hello. ^_^; I'm really really late, I know. But I purposely made this chapter huge to make up for it! At least, I think it's huge. 0_o

Blame Chuquita for the way Goku acts toward Vegeta in this one! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT CHU-SAMA!! …But I still luv your fics and artwork. ^_^ If you haven't read any of Chuquita's fanfics here, WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN?! *grabs and shakes you*

Responsibility Fairy: Put them down before you give them brain damage!

Heh, right. ^_^; *puts the reader down* Ah, by the way, this is one of my many Fairies. You know that voice in the back of your head that sometimes screams at you to do your homework before you forget it? No? Maybe it's just me then… anyway, these little fairies represent all the random thoughts floating through my head. Believe me, there are a lot. 0_o

Buckets of Worms and Saiya-Go Lessons

            Kris set down in front of a creek and … stared. It _was_ relaxing, the gurgling sound of the cold water over smooth rocks, and the birds chirping lightly to each other while a group of squirrels fought over a scrap of food. It was… depressing. 

            She sat down abruptly, getting the back of her jeans wet on the moist ground. She didn't care. Staring at the water in front of her mindlessly, she let her thoughts wander around until they trickled away like the very water she gazed at. Only one thought refused to be dislodged.

            She had majorly screwed up.

            Everything. The first thing that came to mind was the recent fight with Ranu. Looking back, part of her realized that he was only trying to help her. No… her face scrunched up as she thought of what word described it. 

            Protect. He had been trying to protect her.

            Her eyes widened considerably. Protect her? Why would he…

            'Because he fucking _worships_ you, you moron!' a self-loathing voice in her head hissed at her. She cringed outwardly, recognizing just how much she had really screwed everything up. But just as abruptly as she realized it, her apathy and rage fused together and promptly kicked regret's ass back into the deep recesses of her mind. 

            Her face scrunched up again, this time in an expression of fury and indignity. She glared at the birds flittering around over her head. They were too happy sounding… 

            Abruptly, a few burnt feathery bodies fell to the ground.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ .~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . 

            He had managed to clean up the mess before they got home. But just barely. And it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered much anyway if he hadn't. Because almost immediately, Goku knew something was up. Though, supposedly, it was better because Chichi hadn't found out. Supposedly.

            "So… what is it?" 

            Ranu blinked, slightly surprised. He had been taking out the garbage after dinner when Goku followed him outside into the chilly air.

            "…what?" Ranu answered.

            "Don't play around. What happened?" 

            Ranu looked sadly at the ground. His uncle had on his second most serious face. It was the one just before "I'm-gonna-beat-you-to-a-pulp" in its severe ness. Ranu's arms went limp and hung uselessly at his sides. 

            "It's nothing."

            Goku's eyes narrowed.

            "I said, don't play around. Something definitely happened. I've been smelling stress all over you since me and Goten got home today. So, _what is it?"_

            Ranu sighed. There was no avoiding it now.

            "Me and Kris had a fight. That's all… it's really nothing, I told you-"

            "What about?" Goku interrupted, his face softening slightly. Ranu fidgeted nervously.

           "… Kris got mad at me for ruining a prank she was going to pull… she would've gotten in trouble, but you know her, she wouldn't have cared anyway," he started, his face taking on a frustrated look at Kris's disregard for any rules whatsoever. "Anyway, she yelled at me and… I guess I got mad at her yelling, and I kinda… yelled back, I guess. Then she stormed out and slammed the door so hard it broke."

            There was a pause while Ranu thought back to what had happened more deeply, and it finally sunk in what she had said. 

            "I told her to get out…" he whispered, head hung down in shame. "…and… she said that, if I was so tired of her, then fine. She said…. she said 'goodbye'…" he finished hoarsely. 

            Goku exhaled through his nose and looked up at the dark night sky, thinking. 

            "I suppose neither of you wants to apologize to the other first…" he sighed.

            Ranu kicked a pebble guiltily.

            "Figures. I let you two hang around with Vegeta too much," he grinned, remembering how Vegeta never apologized for anything and his stubbornness in that area. Even he had been proved wrong countless times; he still maintained that he was in the right…

            Breaking off the thoughts of his rival, Goku looked back at Ranu, who was staring off into the nearby woods. 

            "You know, she's more stubborn and prideful than you are," he started. Ranu glanced up at him. "She's not going to apologize first. Heck, she may not even admit that she's in the wrong at all! She's too much like Vegeta," Goku mentally slapped himself. Enough mentioning Vegeta already! He continued after a small pause.

            "… but you're the only thing she has to cling onto in this world."

            Ranu started and stared questioningly at his uncle.

            "Besides Vegeta, I mean. But, he's the only family she has. Unless you count Bulma, Bra, and Trunks," he quickly added. Ranu turned back to stare at the dark forest.

            "… No. She doesn't count them. She's told me before, once. She's… grateful, I guess, but… she doesn't love them like family… she's even kind of distant from Vegeta-san…" Ranu said in a dull voice.

            Goku nodded once. "Then, really, you're the only one who's keeping her here." Again, Ranu started and stared at him.

            "Aw, come on, it's not that hard to figure out, is it?" And judging by the blank look on his nephew's face, it apparently was. 

            "Look, you know about what she's been through, right?" he asked.

            Ranu nodded. "Most of it. What she'll tell me anyway,"

            "Right. Well, think about it. She's got nowhere to go, and nowhere she belongs. I've caught her a couple times out here, just laying in the middle of the field and staring up at the sky. She thinks… no, she _knows_ that Earth isn't her home, but she also knows that her home doesn't exist anyway. She's got nowhere to go to that she feels safe in. Except for you," he ended, pointing a finger at Ranu.

            "Me?" Ranu blinked in surprise.

            "You can't tell me that you haven't noticed how tense she is when someone touches her. But, she's perfectly fine when you hug her. She's even relaxed. Me and Vegeta sometimes talk… between beating the tar out of each other of course," he laughed, then sobered up again. "But… we talk about you two a lot. What he tells me about Kris… Ranu, no matter how hard everyone tries at healing the wounds in her heart, they'll always be there. But the fact is, she rejects everyone else when they even attempt to get close to her. She's closed herself up into her own protected little bubble, and no one can get in… except you."

            Ranu's eyes were getting progressively wider at every sentence.

            "Don't you get it? You're the pain-killer she needs to keep functioning right! She can't keep going without _you_ there, keeping her on the right path!"

            Ranu gaped openly, in shock. Since when… since when did his uncle know more about Kris than he did? When did he stop noticing things about her? Shouldn't he have picked up on it? Was she hiding it from him? Why?

            Goku watched, only slightly amused at Ranu's obviously running-at-full-speed mind. He dropped one hand on Ranu's shoulder, snapping him out of the constant, increasingly frantic circle of thoughts. He smiled comfortingly at him.

           "Look Ranu," he said softly. "She's going to fight you with all she's got. Because I think, unintentionally, you hurt her. You've never yelled back at her before, and it surprised her. She won't admit that you have any power over her, so, she'll use her anger and try to beat you with it. I think you hurt her by challenging her dominance, and so out of instinct and habit, she shoved you away so you can't do it again,"

            He stopped Ranu before he could say it.

            "I know, I know, you wouldn't hurt her. But that's not what she believes right now. You want to be friends again, right?"

            Ranu nodded enthusiastically.

            "Then, you've got to go out there and find her. Think of something she can't resist giving in to, and offer that as an apology. Worship her for awhile, so her scathed ego will stop trying to control her. Not too much though, or she'll end up worse than 'Geta!" he laughed.

            Ranu smiled for the first time that day. He lunged forward and hugged Goku tightly, then let go and started running off, only pausing for long enough to wave and shout back a "Thanks Uncle Goku!" 

            Goku smiled and waved back as Ranu took off. He stood outside for awhile longer, looking at the sky. 

            "I wonder if I should go ask Vegeta to teach me Saiya-go one of these days…" he wondered out loud. With a naughty little chuckle he flew off in the direction of Capsule Corporation. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

            Ranu sniffed the air intently, trying to track Kris down through scent alone. She was hiding her ki too well for him to use that to find her. Giving the air one last sniff to confirm it, he took off towards her location. 

            'What… what should I say? Maybe it would be better if I just forced her to apologize?' he though while speeding past rather confused and disoriented nocturnal woodland animals. Immediately, a cynical voice in his head replied. 

            'Since when has _forcing_ her to do anything worked, moron?' it sneered at him.

            'It might work this time! She might be… be…'

            'What?' it snarled. 'She might be broken enough to be convinced? Is that what you want, you selfish little bastard?!'

            'No! I don't want that!'

           'Then I suggest you think of a way around that wall of hers. Unless you'd _prefer_ a broken mate,' it growled.

           '_What?!_' he stopped suddenly, gaping at air. But it was too late. Having fulfilled its mission, the sneering voice drifted back into the depths of his mind with a mischievous chuckle. 

           'I…. I don't like her that way…' Ranu thought to himself, struggling to hold down any "inappropriate" ideas. '…..do I?' He paled in fear at the thought.

           'Oh god….'

           "I-I… I…" he whispered. Swallowing nervously, he opened his mouth to finish the sentence.

           And abruptly closed it again with an audible click. 

          'I don't. She's just a friend. I like her, but I don't…' his thought trailed off, unable to even think the word. He was blushing as it was. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he continued running and sniffing Kris out.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

        Wide-eyed, Ranu stood just behind the tree line, openly staring in the direction of the creek. He found himself unable to speak.

        She was floating above the water, feet just barely touching the surface. Her shoes lay discarded, melted even, on the opposite bank. Various creatures, from birds and lizards, to wolves, deer, and dinosaurs, lay burnt and decaying around the creek. 

       He had to cover his mouth and nose with his hand to keep the nauseating smell of burnt dead flesh at a tolerable level. 

       She was performing a smooth, flowing kata, obviously trying to imitate the water below her. Abruptly, she pounded the air hard and fast with intricate kicks and punches, twirling around to deliver blows on more imaginary opponents on all sides, only to quickly calm back down into the flowing graceful movements of before.

      She had ripped her jeans off, and their ashy remains lay next to the ki-melted footwear. The t-shirt she wore was long enough to go down to her knees, but she had roughly torn off the sleeves and the rest of it was ripped in some places. From what, he didn't know.

      To finish it, she had rescued a black leather collar from her backpack and wore it around her neck. The silver metal ring in the front glinted with the limited amount of light the stars emitted. Ranu vaguely noted somewhere in the back of his mind that he remembered both Bulma and Chichi forbidding her to buy it.

      He thought she looked like a dark angel.

      An unfamiliar sensation fluttered through his stomach and it brought him out of his trance. He inhaled sharply, surprised at the feeling.

      Kris stopped sharply, snapping her head in his direction. He froze for a moment.

      'You stupid moron!' the voice came back with a vengeance. 'Get your ass out there!' and gave him a mental shove.

      It worked as well as a physical one. Ranu stumbled forward out of the protection of the trees rather ungracefully. Blushing furiously, he regained his balance and nervously scratched the back of his head, looking away.

      She didn't move. Didn't turn her eyes away from him for an instant. Didn't even blink or change expression. 

      The creek bubbled happily along, kissing the bottom of her feet occasionally. The smell of burnt flesh and earthy scents could not be purified away by the water's clean scent. Everything stood still for long seconds that dragged their feet like recalcitrant children going to school. Nothing… moved…

       'CAN YOU BE ANYMORE OF A MORON?!' it screeched. Ranu flinched unknowingly and Kris twitched. It was broken. 

       "Just what the hell do you want," she said in a dead-pan tone of voice. Ranu's mind felt like a dam had burst and every thought possible was rushing over him like a flash flood. He quivered uncontrollably, but made no other move. 

       Kris raised an eyebrow questioningly and slowly floated back to dry land and landed in front of Ranu. 

       "I…" he whispered, eyes hidden from her view. "I… didn't mean it."

       She blinked, taken aback for a moment, before a smug smirk found its way to her lips. She opened her mouth to say another "I told ya so" and-

       "You made me so angry!" Ranu yelled suddenly, but didn't raise his head. His hands clenched at his sides, useless. "I… I didn't know how to get through to you. I hadn't wanted… I never wanted to hurt you! _Never_!"

       She stared, slowly digesting.

      "Damnit Kris! Why do you have to be so… so…"

      'Beautiful? Alluring? Fiery? Stubborn? _Sexy_?'

      He sighed, and let the sentence go. 

      "I never wanted to hurt you. All I've ever wanted was for you to be happy and safe. But safe especially. You think I can just _forget_ what's happened to you?! How many times when we were little that you woke up crying and I had to purr you back to sleep? Because of what happened to you back then?"

      Kris's pupils dilated in alarm, but she didn't move.

      "More than anything, I wanted… I wanted you to feel safe. To _be_ safe. After all that time in a cold cell, I wanted you to feel safe and warm!" He paused, seeming to collect his thoughts.

     "But, no matter how hard I try… I can't protect you from yourself. You're always trying to hurt yourself Kris. Every single time someone manages to get in past your defenses you beat yourself up and push everyone away. Why? What…" he looked up finally, staring into Kris's eyes. She noted dully, through the haze of the initial shock, that he had tears in his eyes. 

     "What did they do to you that made you so sad? Why won't you let me help you heal your old wounds, Kris? I just want…" he choked once, and the slight motion caused the hot salty water to pour over his cheeks. He bowed his head again. 

     "I only want you to be happy."

     'I love you.'

     "I love you, Kris."

     And the world exploded.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

      "Vegeta!"

      Vegeta snorted, slightly annoyed at the overly peppy voice, but turned his head slightly in the other man's direction as an acknowledgement. 

      Goku landed a couple feet away from him, and kept his distance that way. He knew that the Prince disliked physical contact, to the point of not being comfortable with anyone being within a few feet of him. It was like a bubble of security. He sometimes wondered how the heck Trunks and Bra had ever been born.

      "I was wondering if we could have a light spar? Chichi's busy doin' whatever house stuff she doesn't let me do, and Goten's got a date, an' then Gohan is too busy with-"

      "Enough!" barked Vegeta. "I get the point. Come on." And he led the way to the Gravity Room, even though they both knew that Goku had been there so many times he could've made it there blindfolded. 

     After they both stopped to take a breather, much to Vegeta's protest ("A _break_?! Are you going soft on me Kakarrot?") Goku decided to test the waters.

     "Vegeta…" 

     A slight inclination of the head told him that the Prince had heard him.

"What… what was it like? Our planet, I mean," 

At this, Vegeta turned his head completely to look at him. After a few seconds of silence (that seemed to a nervous Goku more like minutes) he snorted derisively. 

"What do you mean, 'our' planet? The planet was mine, Kakarrot."

"You know what I mean!" Goku exclaimed exasperatedly. Vegeta chuckled, secretly glad he had managed to get under the other Saiyan's skin, if even for a brief second. Then he sobered and his face became introspective. When he spoke, it was with a voice barely above a whisper. Goku managed to hear it anyway.

"It was bitter-sweet. Everything was useful, not like here. Everyone was always either training, eating, sleeping, or fucking each other senseless. Not that I knew much about the latter, I was still under-age when it was destroyed… there weren't that many Saiyans and the food was rich, so starvation wasn't a worry. The food here is so weak… maybe that's why all its inhabitants are pitiful," he chuckled darkly. Goku felt something pang in his heart at the sight of Vegeta sitting a few feet away from him on the floor, boring holes into a wall with his intense eyes as he recited what he remembered from his childhood. Goku absorbed every tidbit of information he could eagerly. 

When Vegeta finally blinked himself out of his reverie, he glanced over at Goku and was slightly startled.

Goku's eyes were bright. No, they were always bright and shining. But this was something entirely different. The man was almost glowing with energy from his eagerness to learn more, and his eyes were fevered in a way that nearly made Vegeta scared.

"Vegeta?..." Goku whispered reverently. Vegeta desperately tried to not start at the tone of voice.

"What, Kakarrot?" he replied. Goku didn't wait for an instant.

"Would you tech me how to speak Saiya-go?"

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

She stumbled backwards, in shock. He did likewise, in the opposite direction, hands abruptly slapped over his own mouth. But the tears wouldn't stop coming, no matter how hard he tried, they wouldn't stop coming and the small keening sounds of a crying child wouldn't stay deep in his throat or behind his hand. No matter how he tried to hide it through shock, she could still see it there, screaming at her in its severity.

_Fear_.

He was afraid. She could smell it on him, even through the smoky scent of burnt fur and flesh surrounding them. He was terrified beyond all reason at that moment, and for the life of her, _she couldn't figure out why_! The only thing she was capable of doing was staring openly back at his trembling form as his legs threatened to collapse under the stress and adrenalin. 

Abruptly, the shock in his eyes wore off and the fear faded away. What replaced it, however, was far more terrifying to Kris. 

Deep in his eyes, through all the water that spilled down his face, a soul-wrenching sadness swept through his small frame. It wouldn't have been so bad, if he had only understood _why_ it hurt so badly to say that word to her. It was only a word, right? Like "dog" or "book". It could be written down and spelled out and defined like every other word, so why did this one hurt so much more? His legs abruptly gave out and he collapsed onto the forest floor, hands still firmly clamped over his mouth. 

Had he not been distracted by his own pain, he would have noticed a change in Kris that was taking place.

Here was her only and best friend, on his knees in the mud, crying, after having confessed his love to her. She had no idea of what to do. Nothing had prepared her for this in her entire young life, and now it was thrust on her because of… a bucket of worms? If she had had the sense of mind to do so, she would've slapped herself in the forehead.

She had hurt him. 

That thought kept echoing around in her mind, over and over. No matter how often she called him an idiot and hit him over the head and abused him, she had never hurt him this badly. Never. And now he was practically broken over a fucking bucket of worms. 

Kris bared her teeth in frustration and anger at herself. Gathering up what will-power she had left, she rammed herself into the mental wall of cold indifference whose purpose it had been to keep her safe. It crumbled with some difficulty, and abruptly she found herself kneeling beside Ranu and holding onto him for dear life. 

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

"And what's that?"

"Ah… ah… i-chi-noh-se?"

"Good. You finally got it."

Goku grinned weakly at the slight praise and yawned, rubbing at his eyes. Vegeta took note of it and decided to call it a day. Even though it was near midnight. 

"That's enough for now Kakarrot. Go home and get some sleep. We'll continue tomorrow," he said, turning to exit the room.

A loud thump made him turn back around. There, on the floor, was an unconscious Goku. Vegeta rolled his eyes at the younger Saiyan's prone form. 

"He couldn't have waited until he got home. He had to faint right in the middle of my training room. How like him," he muttered to himself, stalking over to Goku and picking him up, maneuvering the larger Saiyan until he was carrying him on his back. Still grumbling, he carried him out of the room and into one the spare bedrooms the building had. 

Just as Vegeta was about to drop the unconscious man onto the mattress, Goku's body decided it liked being attached to Vegeta's back far too much to let go and be deposited on a cold unfamiliar bed. Vegeta's left eyelid twitched in annoyance.

'You're kidding me,' he thought. 'This is _not_ happening. Kakarrot is _not_ clinging to me in his sleep like a… a… plush animal!'

But despite the Prince's denial of it, it was indeed happening. What made it worse was that Goku was smiling in his sleep and nuzzling Vegeta's back.

Vegeta twitched and his face turned several varying shades, from red to blue to green to white. Finally settling on a light pink (unbeknownst to the Saiyan Prince, who would have been infuriated at his own body for even producing such a color) Vegeta snarled silently to himself in frustration at being unable to pry off the slumbering Saiyan, and finally relented, exhaustion starting to creep up on him. 

'Fine,' he mentally spat. 'That's just fine. If the moron wants to cling to me like a brat, then let him. I don't care!'

With that, he stalked out of the room and into his own. He'd be damned if he would change sleeping locations just because he was… inconvenienced. Even if he did have to flop down onto his bed sideways to avoid being crushed by the large Saiyan. 

Goku smiled even more in his sleep and unconsciously cuddled closer to the slumbering Prince.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Blame Chu-sama. She made me do it! *points finger accusingly*

Anyway, I'm not going to apologize if you took this as shonen-ai and didn't like it. In fact, I hope it disgusted and disturbed you. Because that's how I get my kicks, sucker. ;)

But really, I doubt I'll be updating this story very often. It's sort of a pet story now. I'm not sure how to end it, and I don't think I want to. It'll be continually added to and will probably grow to an unruly size. But it's a nice way to keep track of how much my skill as a writer has progressed. ^_^

I'm more of a poet than anything else. I suck at drawing. ^_^; 

If you felt that Kris and Ranu's conflict hasn't been completely resolved yet, then you're right. Its not over by a long-shot. I do have rough plans as to a future plot, but it jumps so far into their future it seems… premature. 

Review please. Or I shall be extremely sad and fall into a deep depression. L


	14. Sugary Sweet

Sorry it took so long everybody. I was working on another fic, and then Inspiration Fairy decided to take a break… Motivation Fairy was nowhere to be found, as usual… anyway, here it is now. And I'm not sure whether or not I love it or hate it.

This chapter is pure filler. Or a transition chapter. Whichever you want. You remember that promise I made in the beginning of this fic to have no romance? I lied. In the upcoming chapters there is a major plot twist (not sure where I'm gonna run with it, but it's going somewhere) and the most god-awful piece of fluffy sap-angst I've ever read, let alone written. I made myself ill, reading that. But then I thought to myself, 'I can't delete this. This is 3 pages of pure, unfiltered fluff here! It's GOLD!' and such things. I also broke a promise to myself, that I wasn't going to include their teenage years in this. I lied then too.

I can't keep promises for very long. I don't know why. But anyway, enjoy this complete and utter waste of a chapter for now. Plot twists are coming soon, I promise. As well as "Oh-no-I've-Been-Traumatized-Again-By-Demons-From-My-Past-So-Hold-Me" moments. Damn my romantic hormones. Damn them all.

Sugary Sweet

It had passed without incident. No mention of it was made by either party. That night might as well have never happened in the minds of the people who knew about it. Nothing had changed, besides that Kris had become much more tolerant of Ranu's possessiveness. But one would expect that anyway after how long he had been acting that way. She just got used to it is all.

So, nothing seemed really out of the ordinary with them.

"GOD DAMNIT RANU YOU BASTARD!!"

"You can't take a joke, can you?!"

A seething Kris was beating (or attempting to beat) the crap out of her best friend. Again. For replacing her shower gel with syrup. Again.

Luckily for Ranu, he escaped most of her fury. He felt a bit sorry for her furniture however.

"You're such a fucking prick, ya know that?!"

Snap!

"….poor desk…." Ranu muttered, looking at the huge crack in the wooden desk from where Kris had hit it too hard.

"What the hell was that?!" Kris continued, irate. "You're feeling sorry for the fucking _desk_, but you have no qualms about putting _fucking sticky crap in my shower_?!"

Ranu frowned suddenly. She was getting close to exploding and wrecking half of the building.

"Well…" he started, grinning and scratching the back of his head in what he knew was an innocent and clueless gesture, "I know how you like getting that sweet-smelling junk to wash yourself with, so…."

She had calmed down considerably to listen to his excuse. But a quick glance told him that she was _not_ convinced in the least.

"…. How was I supposed to know you couldn't use syrup to wash with?" he said quickly. This was his last hope. "I mean, I was flipping through a magazine Aunt Chi left laying around, and it had all these recipe-type things in it, and it _said_ you could use syrup for bath stuff! It said… it s-said it was a great…um… exviolator, or something…." He trailed off near the end, uncertain if she would buy it. This was the third time he had switched her liquid soap with some kind of sweet edible liquid substance.

Why, you may ask? Well, he didn't really know why. It had seemed entertaining when he first thought of it. And later, when he thought of it again. And earlier that day too.

He laughed nervously as she gave him a glare that only one who was both raised by and related to Vegeta could replicate. No doubt, Vegeta was proud that the particular brand of glare would not die out with him.

"….fine." she spat out, turning on her heel to do something, then forgetting what it was she had turned for in the first place. To cover for it, she pretended to still be angry with him and attempt to ignore him.

Ranu looked warily at her, half-mockingly. He knew very well that she couldn't stay angry with him for long, and he used that to his every advantage. The world was mind-numbingly boring for two hormonal Saiyans without a strong enemy to fight with. So, they had to find ways to amuse themselves. Who would blame him for teasing Kris day after day?

Kris herself, apparently.

He grinned wickedly to himself at first, then contorted his face into an extremely convincing pout, one that screamed "PITY ME!!!!" with such ferocity that it had been known to make Vegeta physically ill and had on occasion worked on Bra as well. Which was a mighty feat, considering she had a massive arsenal of pouts all on her own.

With that pout and teary eyes, he softly stepped just behind Kris and stayed still for a moment. Better to drag out the suspense, make her wonder what I'm up to and then when she turns back around…

True to his predictions she did in fact turn around to look at him. And his plan worked perfectly.

Her face softened instantly from the suspicious "what the hell are you up to" look to a sort of regretful "how could I have been mad at you you pathetic little creature" face that he was hoping for. It wasn't exactly flattering to be considered pathetic at the moment, but… he took what he could with Kris.

"Y-you're not mad at me…. are you?" he whimpered and stuttered on purpose. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"…no, I'm not mad you. But you're still an idiot." She finally admitted, adding the insult to the end to keep him from getting ideas about her going soft on him.

He beamed at her, instantly dropping the pout and hugged onto her tightly, despite her protests, which were muffled against his chest anyway. After a few moments and a content hum from him, he released her and she stumbled backwards, red in the face.

"Did I suffocate you or something?" he asked, concerned.

"N-no!" she exclaimed, glaring again. But he didn't miss the fact that her face got even redder. He grinned wickedly again and Kris's eyes widened in surprise and fright.

He leered at her.

"You think I'm hot, don't ya?" he said smugly. Kris turned at least 5 different colors.

"I DO NOT YOU STUPID BAKAYARO!!!"

He sighed to himself as he narrowly dodged another ki blast.

'Ah well. Back to where we began, I suppose…'


	15. The Shadow Enters

By now, you should know me well enough to know that I enjoy making people squirm. And while I hate reading cliffhangers myself, I absolutely _love_ writing the suckers. Ah, yes. That's right. A nice cliffy heading your way. Hang on to your pants people, else they might become confiscated. :D

I'm seriously considering re-doing the first few chapters. They make me twitch when I re-read them.

I've been listening to that song, "Building A Mystery". That's why the chapter title is so weird. Quote: "You woke up screaming out loud, a prayer from your secret god…" Ah, how I love that song. I never get tired of it. "Can you look out the window, without your Shadow getting' in the way?" Full lyrics will be posted in my DevArt journal. Because I feel like it people. Feel good today my peeps. 'Cause today is all you can hold with your hands. It's all you have.

Plot twists make me squeal. The next fluff-filled chapter (after this one) makes me question my sanity. And yaoi/shonen-ai makes me wet my pants.

But you didn't need to know that last one.

Note: Iie means no. I tend to insert Japanese words wherever my subconscious feels like placing them. Sometimes Japanese words feel better in certain places.

The Shadow Enters

"Ain't there nothing on?" Ranu complained, flipping through channels on Kris's television (which got far more channels than the TV at his house for obvious reasons).

Kris just rolled her eyes and didn't bother to correct his English skills. She continued playing her game of Solitaire and tried to ignore his loud whining.

"I give up," he groaned finally, flinging the remote away. Kris's mouth twitched a little. It had taken forever, but she had finally managed to wean him off of his distaste for throwing objects around the room. It had been mostly Chi-chi's influence that caused him to dislike it so much, but after a little persuasion she had managed to convince him it was okay to throw things while he was in Capsule Corporation. While Chi-chi was there however…

"Tonight! On a Channel 6 Special In-Depth Report!" the television blared. Ranu stared at it, bored to the point of being comatose.

"An interview with a man who is accused of torture and murder beyond anything you have seen before!" Ranu's interest was peaked a bit and he decided he wanted to pay attention to this.

A lovely interviewer, a woman, came onto screen.

"If you're just joining us," she said softly, "We are here with a certain Dr. Morey, the accused. He has been accused of the torture of a young child, the traumatizing of other young children, and the murder of a colleague. We are talking with him live, in person, from his home, where he is under house arrest because of his fragile condition."

She turned towards a man sitting across from her. It was hardly recognizable as a human, much less a man. He was hooked up to so many machines that it seemed as if he was literally a part of them, and he looked pale and sickly. There was a huge gash across his face, barely missing one of his eyes.

"Now, Dr. Morey, is it true that you have pleaded guilty to all but the murder charges?"

A slow response, made gravelly and twisted by the man's throat.

"Yes. I did not kill Dr. Toshika. An animal in our laboratory did that, not I."

"And what of the torture charges?"

"…You must understand. The loss of my good friend, Toshika… it broke me. I did things I am not proud of, but I will not regret them. The same creature that I supposedly tortured was the one that killed Toshika."

The woman looked confusedly behind the camera, asking a silent question, then turned back to the man.

"But sir, you are not accused of torturing an animal. You are accused of torturing a small girl."

"That _girl,_" he hissed past the tubes attached to him. "That thing you call a girl… no more than an animal. It looks humanoid, oh yes! How it looks the part! But don't be fooled by its camouflage. It is nothing but an animal. It killed Dr. Toshika, and it broke out of its cage and killed every scientist in the compound. It tried to kill me! But it only half succeeded, as you can see…" he finished, wheezing.

Ranu tilted his head at the glowing screen for a moment, before bursting out in laughter.

"Ha ha ha! Oh god… can you believe this Kris?" he chortled, turning to look at her.

She had frozen in place. Her eyes were wide and unseeing, filled with terror, and her tail had every single strand of fur standing up straight. Ranu's own eyes widened and he knew something was wrong.

"Kris-chan? You okay?" he said cautiously, edging his way towards her, and making sure to stay within her line of sight.

"Wait just a moment," the woman on screen said. "You are claiming that the small child you supposedly tortured was in fact not a child at all, but some kind of animal? And that this supposed animal is the one who killed Dr. Toshika?"

"Yes." He answered.

Ranu scooted closer to Kris, hands out in an appealing gesture and saying a bunch of nonsense in what he hoped was a soothing voice. If he could get her to relax, then maybe he could find out what was wrong. He just had to be able to touch her without startling her…

"Then is it true that you claim the _entire_ scientific compound of Toshika Int. was demolished by this 'creature'? Its entire staff massacred?"

"Yes. I believe you have a copy of security tapes…"

"We do, however we have no records of the events which you insist happened. But now would be a good time to show them anyway. I warn the audience at home, the scenes you are about to see are graphic in nature and offensive to many. Channel 6 News holds no responsibility if the following offends you."

"Kris? Kris-chan, it's okay. It's okay. Talk to me. It's alright Kris-chan, I'm right here, see?" Ranu continued, tentatively reaching out his hand toward her.

She hadn't so much as blinked.

The sounds of an old tape being played came from the television.

"Iie! _Iie__!_" a child's voice.

"God damnit, would someone get the tranquilizers?!" a female.

"No! Stop it! Stop!" the child.

"Now calm down, okay there little one? It'll be over soon enough," a male voice, soothing.

"N-no…" a whimper.

The tape skipped.

The sounds of violent retching and crying made Ranu turn his head slightly, to see what it was.

And he was frozen as well.

On and on the scenes went. The child's violent vomiting into a drain on the floor of a cement room with a dirty mattress shoved into a corner. The crying, the pleading for her mother. The bouts of hyper-active insanity brought about by whatever new drug they had injected her with, where she screamed and cried and broke her own tail…

Ranu gagged and scurried over to a wastebasket.

When his own vomiting quieted, the child on screen had as well. And Kris was gone.


	16. In Shock

And here we are. The dreaded _fluff_. No, not even fluff. _An angst/fluff hybrid_. Gah. What was I on when I wrote this? Thankfully, it's mercifully short.

Surprisingly, I have two more chapters after this one to upload. And I'm working on another. But I doubt I'll upload them very quickly. Unless I get impatient or something. But I'm usually pretty good about those kinds of things. Why shall I not upload them quickly? Because I know you 9 people are watching me (I see you Saiko Senshi! I know you're there!) and that there are a few others who are informally watching me (you stalkers you.) and I'm not getting anything as far as reviews go. I'm not going to hold the chapters ransom of course… but I do enjoy getting reviews. And the more reviews, the faster the chapters get pumped out. –nod-

Cha, but I'm not going to demand reviews. Do what ya want people.

In Shock

'Oh god, oh god….' Ranu thought to himself, sprinting around the halls of the building, pausing to sniff for Kris's scent. It wasn't hard. It reeked of fear.

He had known that Kris's early childhood was bad. He had even been told most of the details. He had known she had been experimented on. But to actually see and hear it, broadcast on television while she just _sat_ there, frozen in place…

That was too much. For both of them.

"Oh god, Kris, why did you run?" he hissed, frustrated that this was taking as long as it was to find her. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he found her. She probably wouldn't want to be touched. He wasn't sure what else he could do besides hold onto her. He couldn't think straight. What was worse was that, as shaken as he was, he knew that it was nothing compared to what Kris was feeling.

'There,' Ranu thought, stopping in front of a bathroom door. 'She's in there…'

He stood there, unsure of what to do now that he found her. He could hear her in there, panting shakily. From what he could gather, it sounded like she was close to having a panic attack. But as stupid as it was, he was reluctant to open the bathroom door while knowing a girl was in there. Blinking, he reminded himself that it didn't really matter at that point, and that it was highly unlikely she had any articles of clothing removed. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the doorknob and opened the door.

He peeked in, just to make sure. Kris wasn't in sight, so he stepped all the way into the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. Hearing a whimper, he turned toward the shower stall.

'What is she doing in the shower?' he thought. Though it was apparent she wasn't taking a shower and still had her clothes on, looking through the distorted glass doors.

"Kris-chan?" he said quietly. No response.

"Kris-chan, it's alright…" He reached to open the shower door.

"Go 'way," came the reply.

He paused once, considering, before frowning and opening the door anyway.

He frowned even more deeply at the sight that greeted him. Kris was curled as tightly as possible in a corner of the stall, tail wrapped so tightly around her ankles he was sure it was cutting off circulation. She shivered at a regular pace, quieted, then shivered again. Her breathing was still erratic.

Ranu kneeled down next to her and reached out with his tail, brushing her arm with it in a comforting manner. After a minute or so of this, her breathing had calmed somewhat, but she still shuddered.

"…Kris-chan… it's alright. I'm right here, see? Look at me, Kris…" Ranu coaxed. She made a choking sound once, before tilting her head slightly, enough to uncover one eye and look warily at him. He knew enough to not move, and stayed completely still, looking back at her. His tail stilled and rested lightly against her arm while he waited for her to give him some kind of response.

And respond she did. She whimpered and started shaking, tears overflowing from her eyes in a shivering stream. And that was enough for him.

He immediately wrapped his arms around her as best he could, considering she had practically plastered herself against the shower wall, and efficiently shielded her from everything with his body, looming over her in a protective manner. She made the same choking sound again and promptly threw her arms around him and buried her face in his chest like she was a scared child and sobbed.

He closed his eyes and quietly smelled her hair while she shivered and cried against him. He was shaken too. But…

'I can be strong.' He thought, opening his eyes slightly to look down as his tail draped itself in her lap and tickled her leg with the tip comfortingly. 'Yeah… I can hold together. I'll make sure nothing bad happens. She's not going to have to cry again. I'll be damned if anyone makes her cry again.'

He clung to her more tightly and raised his ki slightly, instinctually responding to her distraught state and awakening possessive traits in himself.

Kris simply clung to his shirt and cried.


	17. Reactions

Yep, I got impatient. XP

…I'm beginning to suspect that I lost a lot of my old reviewers for this story when I took that long break to upload/write Redemption… and that all the new "fans" I got for that fic don't particularly like this one… eh. I wish I could still use smilies and such without screwing them up. Anyway…

I've been listening to/reading Naruto a lot lately. Why?... I don't know. Out of boredom I suppose. I'm one of those people who needs something to entertain them constantly. Which is why I have trouble sleeping. But yeah. That one song from Naruto, Wind by Akeboshi… that song makes me want to dance around the room like a moron and cry. Gah. –points to further evidence in DevArt journal-

I'd like to thank my stalkers for reviewing and such. (I'd also like to note that I'd return the favor if they ever uploaded the fan fics I know that they have and am positive are wonderful pieces of literary work. –poke- Not naming any names or anything though…. –innocent whistling- )

Erm, right, the chapter… well, I was pretty sure I liked it at first, but then I got all unsure. So now I don't know if I like it or not. The characterizations are… I don't know what they are. The way Bra acts is how I think she would act though. My view on her personality is that she has a very good mind and personality for politics. But that's just my view on it. –shrugs- The rest of them though… I'm not sure if I'll regret portraying them like I did later or not. Oh well. Moving on.

Reactions

Vegeta was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed when Ranu was through putting Kris into her bed.

When Ranu looked up at him, he beckoned with one hand and walked away. Ranu was torn, wanting to stay and watch over Kris (just to make sure nothing bad happened of course) but decided to obey at the last second. Making sure Kris was securely tucked in (and all windows locked, covered, and blockaded) he followed Vegeta out to the hallway, down some stairs, to one of the living rooms… and was greeted by a rather unsettling sight.

The Briefs family was all there, minus Trunks, who was still busy with paperwork in another part of Capsule Corporation. The three females were either sobbing hysterically or simply sitting there with tears streaming down their face. Dr. Briefs wasn't dong much of anything, save staring at the corner of the coffee table hard enough to melt it.

Bra was the one who noticed him first.

"Where is she? Where's Kris? Is she okay?!" she leapt up from the chair and babbled at Ranu, tears still making tracks down her face.

"The poor dear," Mrs. Briefs sniffled, trying to regain some control over her emotions.

"Vegeta?" Bulma questioned.

"Sit down," Vegeta ordered. "Both of you."

Taking a seat in a nearby chair and watching Bra sit down again next to her mother, Ranu wondered what had happened.

Vegeta chose to sit in his own chair, facing the rest of them and leaning his head against his hand, like he was bored with all their crying and brooding. Though that wasn't quite accurate. He was concerned for the mental state of Konora, wondering how Trunks would react to the tape of the interview that had been made by his daughter for him when he got done with work. He didn't have time to watch the evening news with the rest of the family sometimes. So they taped it for him. Would they even show him the tape? Or pretend that it hadn't happened maybe?

Vegeta shook his head mentally. No point in wondering about that right now.

"What… where's Kris? Is she alright?" Bra whimpered, wiping away tears with her hand.

"She's in bed," Ranu answered.

"In bed? But it's so early…" Mrs. Briefs said, dabbing at her face with a pristine white napkin.

"She saw it…" Bulma said, suddenly calm and almost emotionless, though the tears tracks were still evident on her face. "Didn't she?"

Ranu tilted his head for a moment, confused. Saw it? They meant the interview? Then they had seen it too… He nodded once.

"Oh god…" she sighed, slumping back against the sofa, hiding her face with her hands.

"What are we going to do?" Bra said out of nowhere.

"Do?" Vegeta said, raising an eyebrow at her question.

"Yeah… I mean, she… they showed her face in those videos! Her hair hasn't changed at all since then, and… and people at school… they'll recognize her…" she finished, trailing off quietly at the end. For her, the most logical thing to do was worry about what other people would now think of her younger cousin and figure out how to prevent any more damage to Kris's social status than had already been done. A politician's mind to be sure.

"We'll…" Bulma started. "We'll just deal with that when, and _if_, anything happens."

"I knew that that child had been abused," Dr. Briefs said suddenly, still staring at the corner of the coffee table. "But the extent of it… how could any man of science?..."

"It's alright dear," Mrs. Briefs crooned, reaching to comfort her husband. Besides leaning slightly into her touch, he didn't move.

"But I mean," Bra started again. "What are we going to do _now_? I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't know if I'll be able to look at her the same way again!"

She had the entire room's attention. Dr. Briefs had even torn his eyes away from the ever-fascinating coffee table to look at his granddaughter.

"It's not like I'm saying I hate her, or that I'm disgusted, but…" she looked down, her enthusiastic speech dying down into a defeated helpless plea.

"How are we going to face her when she wakes back up? How the hell are we going to be able to sit around the table at breakfast and act like nothing happened?!" she ended with a sob.

Ranu shuddered and had the sudden urge to run back upstairs and make sure Kris was still asleep and everything was okay.

"Then you don't have to," Vegeta said, interrupting her sobs.

"Huh?" she said, hiccupping.

"You don't have to," he repeated. "You can cry and tell her how sorry you are for something you had nothing to do with and couldn't have even stopped, and then hover around her like an over-protective nursemaid, keeping her in a bed so she doesn't hurt herself and bringing her breakfast in bed, and reading her fairy tales from a picture book like she was a child."

"Vegeta," Bulma said in a warning tone, sensing her daughter was close to running from the room in tears. He ignored her.

"Or," he continued. "You could simply acknowledge that she has gone through these things, but also know that it is in the past and she has always carried those memories and experiences, even when you first met her and nothing anyone does will change that."

Bra sniffled, but nodded.

"Ooh, I know what will cheer everyone up!" Mrs. Briefs chirped suddenly, startling everyone. "A nice warm cup of tea! Or would everyone like hot cocoa instead? That'll be just the thing to take everyone's mind off these unpleasant thoughts! And I have some _wonderful_ little cakes I just bought…" she continued babbling, even as she walked out of the room in search of the cocoa mix and those tiny little cakes she had been talking about.

Bra giggled suddenly, even though tears were still fresh on her face.

Ranu smiled and stood up.

"I'm gonna go check on Kris," he said, noticing the look Vegeta gave him. He waited for Vegeta's nod of approval before turning and walking out of the room.

"Dear!" he heard Dr. Briefs call his wife. "Make sure to send up two hot cocoas to little Kris's room!"

"Ooh!" Mrs. Briefs squealed, the sound quieted by the rooms between them. "I'll send some of these nice sweets up as well!"

Vegeta snickered and tried not to look _too_ amused.


	18. Regression

Eh… sorry. It might be awhile before I get out the next chapter after this one. I've been slacking and all. Bad me. Bad. But, it was nice having these chapters come out fairly quickly, yes? Even if there weren't that many…

Ah! Kiwi-chan came back!! –hug- Indeed, I did miss you. :)

See, you can't get away with not reviewing anymore people. I have the enhanced stats now. I can SEE you. Every time you click on a chapter to read, I know. In fact, somebody has been reading Redemption without reading Condemned first. Bad little reader. Bad. –fake slap-

And like I suspected, people are clicking on the first chapter of this fic and not reading any further. Grr. I've gotten 5 hits on it in the last couple of days, 1 hit on the second chapter, and 2 on the third. I'm not sure how the hell that happened, but okay. Cha.

Anyway, have fun peeps. Bathe yourselves in the fluff-ness and frolic.

Regression

Ranu stepped into the room and quietly shut the door behind him, being careful to not wake Kris. Turning around to look at the bed where he had left her, he panicked.

She wasn't there.

He immediately felt for her ki and let out a sigh of relief when he found it. She was still in the room. Calming down, he pinned it down to her closet and bit his lower lip slightly in worry. Well, her hiding in a closet wasn't exactly a good sign…

"Hey, Kris-chan?" he said, loud enough for her to hear but not shouting. "Kris-chan, it's me, Ranu. You okay?"

He waited for a response.

He heard a bit of shuffling, then the door to the closet opened slightly, just far enough for him to see Kris's eyes staring at him. It unnerved him slightly, but he tried not to let it show.

"There you are!" he said, sounding happy and smiling like he hadn't been sure of where she had gone to and was relieved.

"What're you doing in there?" he asked, tilting his head to the side in a clueless manner.

"... hiding…" came the whispered reply.

"Oh?" he said. "Well, there's nobody else in here, I checked. You're safe."

"Check again."

So he made a show of checking under her bed, in her desk, under furniture, even going so far as to float up to the ceiling and peeking into the air vent.

"'Kay," he said, settling back onto the carpet. "It's all clear Kris."

After waiting a couple minutes, it was clear that she wasn't coming out. He sighed, and walked slowly over to the closet. Kris whimpered and shrunk back into the shadows where he couldn't see her. Stopping right in front of the door, Ranu sat down cross-legged and watched the sliver of shadow that was his view of the interior of her hiding place.

"…You don't have to come out if you don't want to," he said. No reply. "… can I open the door a little then?" he asked.

"… nn."

Taking that as a yes, he nudged the closet door open a little further, letting some light into the space. And there, curled up around herself and staring at him with wide eyes was Kris.

"Hey there," he said, smiling gently and closing his eyes for a moment. "You hungry?"

She looked away for a second, then looked back at him, nodding slightly. He smiled again at her, reassuringly.

"Mrs. Bulma's mother is sending up some hot chocolate and cakes and stuff soon. Want me to go tell her to send more stuff too? How 'bout steak?"

Kris shook her head, eyes suddenly fearful.

"Alright then," he said, still talking in a soothing voice, like one he would use with a child or a wild animal. "We'll just wait for the food to get here then. Want to play a game or something?"

She paused, then nodded.

"Okay. I'll get Battleship then," he said, then slowly got up off the floor and reached above her head, plucking a box off a high shelf.

"Nnnn…" Kris moaned, trying to get his attention. He paused and looked down.

"Yes?"

She bit her lip, looked down, and fidgeted a little.

"…Mancala?" she whispered.

"Sure," he said, smiling again, then taking another, smaller box off the shelf. He sat down again and unfolded a wooden playing board with small bowls carved into it, and two oval shaped bowls at each end of the rectangular board. He took out the brightly colored glass playing pieces and started placing them in the circular bowls, counting them out as he went. It felt good to hear the sound of the sturdy little glass stones plucking together against the wood. It filled up the silence.

"'Kay," he announced when he was done. "You go first."

They played until Mrs. Briefs brought up their snacks, at which point Kris ducked back into the closet. And when she was gone, Kris slowly crept out of it, and nibbled on the edges of a mini cake while Ranu gulped down the hot cocoa.

"Aah," he sighed contentedly, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes, enjoying the warm sensation in his belly. He started slightly when he felt something equally warm in his lap.

"Eh?" he said, opening his eyes and looking down.

Kris had crawled over to where he was sitting and now had her head in his lap and was curled up next him, her tail wrapped around her arm.

"Oh… um, you sleepy Kris-chan?"

Her only response was to yawn widely and purr for a few seconds while she shifted her head around in his lap to get more comfortable. Ranu blushed bright red and began stuttering.

"A-ah… Y-ye-ah, okay…Y-you just… sleep, r-right…"

And then she smiled at him and closed her eyes, falling asleep.


	19. Push To Stop The Bleeding

-munches happily on mint cookies and muffins from kiwichan- 'Sank you kiwichan! :)

And I'm glad to see you reviewing danilion! You like Ranu best? So do I. But don't let my other little precious OC know. She would yell at me. Though given her current mental state, I doubt she's much capable of yelling. :P

Alrighty! Sorry it took so long to update. I just got inspired for the next chapter and churned it out so quickly I thought my brain was going to explode. Ooohhh, I have so many ideas ripping through my brain right now… unfortunately, none of them are for this fic. Curse my easily distracted mind. But… I have this idea. It's such a horrible ugly idea, I hate it, but I know I'll have to write it and publish it. I _need_ to, see? You know me. I have to challenge myself or else I get stale. I have to write it, and I don't want to, and I'll have to wait until I can afford to be screwed up for a week before I can get it right. Yes. But, moving on…

The next chapter will be out tomorrow. Because it's my favorite chapter right now. I can't wait that long to share it.

Push To Stop The Bleeding

Kris yawned and shifted a bit, unwilling to open her eyes just then. Her head hurt and her throat felt raw and achy. Her nose wasn't much better…

She slowly cracked open her eyes. Yep. Those hurt too.

'What the hell happened?...' she thought groggily. Her sleepy mind slowly back-tracked… falling asleep… listening to Ranu babble… hiding… wait, why had she been hiding? Now slightly more alert, her brain immediately snapped onto the previous day's news interview.

She inhaled sharply and bolted upright, eyes wide despite how much they protested.

"Uh?" a slurred voice said next to her. She whipped her head around to see Ranu rub at his eyes sleepily and stretch, popping a few joints. Her eyes widened, despite being slightly calmer.

Ranu was there. Everything was alright. It was going to be okay, it had to be, right? They couldn't find her here. They didn't know where she was. Ranu was safe, her uncle was safe, everything was okay…

"Uhn… Kris? What're you…. You okay?"

'Yeah, I'm okay,' she wanted to say. But she couldn't find the will to remember how to work her mouth and vocal chords. All that happened was a scratchy whine, mangled by her tortured throat.

"…it's alright," Ranu said after a minute. He looked at the window and noticed the sliver of light that seeped through the thick curtains he had covered the windows with the day before.

"It's morning," he commented. Kris just looked lost and looked back at him. He smiled a little at her. "How 'bout we go get some breakfast then?"

He didn't even wait for a response this time. If it was up to her, she would never leave the room. Thus, he was taking it into his own hands and dragging her out of it.

She squeaked in protest when he picked her up and set her on her feet, then grabbed her hand and led her out of the room.

She dug her heels into the carpet and clutched at the fibers with her toes as he went to pull her out of the doorway.

"Come on Kris, it's okay," Ranu said, frowning. "We're just going to get some food. We can come back when we're done eating, okay?"

She shook her head and closed her eyes defiantly, pulling backwards into the room. Ranu frowned more deeply and grabbed her arm and pulled. She gave a pathetic sounding squeak and near collapsed and fell on him. He staggered backwards a little but remained upright. Kris didn't move once he was holding her so that she wouldn't collapse onto the floor.

He sighed. They really needed to get some food. They were both getting weak from not having any dinner at all the night before and waking up late. That and he had puked up most of his lunch from the day before, he remembered with a disgusted grimace.

He was distracted from his thoughts by a pair of shaking arms encircling his torso. He looked down and bit his lip, worrying again about Kris's mental state. She hadn't said a word yet, and now she was clinging to him like he would disappear. This wasn't like her at all. She hadn't clung to him since they were children, and only then when she was seriously upset. Was she going to be alright? Had this seriously shaken her so bad that she was going to be permanently damaged?

He shuddered.

'Don't think of that kind of stuff right now,' he thought and mentally shook himself to regain his senses.

"Come on Kris, we have to go get breakfast," he said again. "You're hungry, I know you are. I'm hungry too. Come on,"

Her grip didn't relax in the slightest. He sighed.

"Ah!" he said, getting a sudden idea. "I'll give you a piggy-back ride then, okay? That way you won't have to let go!"

Kris blinked and looked at him. A piggy-back ride? That _could_ work, she supposed…

She nodded slightly.

"Great!" he said happily, and bent down so she could climb on his back. When she did, he grabbed her legs to steady her and make sure she didn't fall off, and stood up slowly. Her grip on his shoulders was slightly painful, but he didn't complain. At least he had gotten her out of the room.

It was a start.


	20. Saint and Sinner

This chapter is short too. Sorry. I seem to have gotten into a habit of writing short little chapters while I was writing Redemption. I'm almost to the point where I wonder if I should try to pretend that that fic never happened. –points to people clamoring for a sequel- But I suppose it gave me a huge boost in ego and helped my writing become a hell of a lot better than it was. –sighs-

Also! I _know_ there are people out there who're not reviewing. –pokes them- I told you, you can't hide. I spent $5 on being able to see you people. I don't know your names, but I know you've been here. –creepy stalking music comes on-

Hm. Anyway, this is indeed my favorite chapter. It has no real… erm, purpose, I guess. I mean, it doesn't really do anything for the progression of the plot, you see? (The next one will, I promise)

But… I love this chapter because I think it's one of my best as far as writing goes. I think it shows how much my writing has matured from… well, the first chapter. :P That was almost 2 years ago. Damn.

Anyway, you know me. I can't help but every once in awhile make something that delves into the slightly-insane. Hell, that's what Redemption was about! And that's what its sequel (if I ever make one) will be about too. But this chapter somehow takes my rather cynical views on right and wrong and takes other things and kind of smashes them together into a swirly goo of pointlessness and near-insanity. After all, I can't very well have Kris be all better after only a couple of chapters, now can I? Plus, I seriously enjoy what I consider the artistic side of my writing. Ah, how I love the duality of people…

Saint And Sinner

_ 'Don't look at me.'_

Kris curled up in the corner between the wall and her bed and stared straight ahead.

It was too much.

She didn't know how they could stand looking at her. How they could continue living with her when they knew now of just how weak she was. Just what she had done. She knew that they had been so shocked by the old security videos of her sickness that they had missed it. They had blocked it.

It was too much for them too.

She closed her eyes and drew her knees up to her chest. But what happened when they did remember? When they went back to the recording (she knew they would, their morbid curiosity wouldn't allow otherwise) what then? When the shock wore off and they began analyzing her again? Piecing together, bit by sickening bit, all of her brief past and discovering just how she was? It was enough that they knew, that they _saw_, how weak she was. Back then. Still.

But it was reassuring that they tried not to treat her differently now. It was almost kind of nice that they didn't hate her. That Bulma still gathered her up in a crushing hug and whispered in her ear that she loved her like her own flesh-and-blood, no matter what. That Trunks, despite all the hard looks he had given her, had eventually smiled at her and ruffled her hair affectionately. That Vegeta had silently told her that he knew all along, but he was still proud of her, that he still knew who she was and wouldn't change his behavior towards her. That Ranu cared enough to outright refuse to go back home, even after Chichi yelled for an hour but eventually gave up, that he was so gentle when he talked to her, when he held onto her after waking up screaming and howling.

It made her insides feel so sickeningly cold.

They didn't know now. But they would. And then what? What would they do? Her uncle had killed people before, yes, and they still loved him, didn't they? But hadn't he repented by dieing, by saving the planet, by fathering Trunks? What did she do to make up for her sins?

Nothing.

She had done nothing.

A low keening whine escaped her throat as she began to rock back and forth slowly. Comfortingly.

Well, she still had time, didn't she? She could still repent, couldn't she? It wasn't too late, was it? Would they come back after her now, because she hadn't repented yet? She hadn't been humble enough, hadn't cried enough, hadn't screamed out how sorry she was and begged forgiveness; that was it, wasn't it?

…Or would they come back because her sin hadn't been deep enough?

Saint and Sinner screamed at each other and slashed each other deep until both were ragged and dead, but they kept screaming. Repent, sin, cry, kill, die, live; nothing had made any sense to her, ever.

Dry heaving didn't seem to help, but she did it anyway. Perhaps her body was trying to expel something that it couldn't reach. Maybe it was trying to get rid of the cold insides that writhed so uncomfortably throughout her. But it was probably trying to force every urge to scream until lungs bled through her mouth without uttering a single sound.

She panted, sweat dripping down her face and arms wrapped around her midsection. The door opened, two feet thudded against the carpet towards her, and two knees dropped down forcefully to kneel beside her. Two hands tangled in her hair and pulled her towards a warm frightened body and the two arms held her there, attempting to squeeze the sickness, the badness, the uncertainty, out of her. She started laughing and tears rolled down her face. She couldn't stop laughing until she was panting for air, and broke down into a fit of giggles and mewling. The two arms clung more tightly, protectively, and helplessly. Despair seeped into the scent.

Sinner and Saint screamed their lungs bloody together.


	21. Strength

Oh, I started out not liking this chapter. I thought it was a bit too… sketchy? I guess that's the right word. But I promised that this chapter would have some kind of plot movement in it. And indeed, it does. :D Oh, does it ever. (I love being evil.)

And it ends in a cliffhanger too. Not quite sure how I'll resolve it… but rest assured, I'll finish up this little plot-arc before I work on anything else. Indeed. –chuckles evilly-

But I ended up loving this chapter too. Damnit, I just keep getting better and better! Ahahahaha!! –ego begins to swell again-

Anyway… I thought about delaying this chapter for another day… because I think I'm spoiling you all with my speedy updates. :P But that's okay. I enjoy spoiling people sometimes. Not to mention I've been spoiled to death by nice peoples. –poke poke poke-

Give me a couple days to write this next chapter though, 'kay? I need sufficient time to recuperate from these last two. And I need time to find some good inspiration again. –glances toward an exhausted Inspiration Fairy- ….. Yes. In the meantime, DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL ROX!!11!!!111111!!!!!1!! –head bangs-

Strength

Nothing was helping. Nothing anyone did could get through to her, not even Ranu anymore. She would just stare at all of them like they were strangers, with a blank soul-less stare that made Ranu break down and cry. It hadn't even fazed her. Which scared them more than Ranu's crying ever could.

Three days, and she had only gotten worse. She ate, and she obeyed orders, but she resembled an automated doll no matter what they asked her to do. No matter what they tried, even when Ranu had become slightly hysterical and desperate, threatening to destroy her mother's scouter if she didn't _say_ something, she had not reacted in the least, save her staring at him without so much as a flicker of emotion in her eyes. He had dropped it helplessly and broke down again.

She still did nothing.

"Look at you! You're a mess!" Chichi exclaimed, gesturing wildly at Ranu's under-fed body and the darkness that seemed to hang around him. She fluttered about, trying to mess around with his hair and straightening his clothes, hoping to make him look at least a _little_ better.

"There," she sighed, stepping back to look at him. It hadn't changed anything. "That'll have to do until we can get you home and get some food into you." She nodded to herself.

Ranu inhaled sharply and looked up from the floor, his tired eyes wide.

"W-what?"

"You heard me young man!" Chichi said sharply, sensing an argument. "You are coming back home _today_! Look at you! You're nothing but skin and bones and you look as if you're going to keel over any second now! I can't have you staying here with that girl any longer!"

Ranu's eyes dilated, then narrowed into a glare.

"Oh, don't give me that look!" she admonished. "You know I feel as bad as everyone else about Kris… but… having you waste away won't do her any good." She finished gently.

Ranu shook his head and took a step back.

"Nothing I do has any effect on her," he said, his voice cracking. "If I was to waste away, she wouldn't care at all… If I die, she wouldn't feel anything at all!" He yelled suddenly, tears starting to stream down his face again and shaking.

"I thought I could save her!" he yelled. "I thought, if I could be strong enough, she would be okay! I could pull her out of it by always being there, _I_ was the one who could save her from herself!" He shook his head wildly and stumbled backwards.

"I-I didn't want her to be like t-this! I just wanted her to be happy! Why couldn't I do that Aunt Chi?!" he sobbed, and looked at her with pleading desperate eyes that continued to stream tears.

She rushed forward and threw her arms around him comfortingly and he almost collapsed into her, sobbing.

After a few minutes, he calmed down and she withdrew to speak.

"Come on," she said soothingly. "I'm sure she'll come out of it soon. She doesn't need you to worry yourself to death about her." And she led him slowly outside and into the car and drove off.

Ranu's breathe slowly fogged up the inside of the backseat window he was staring listlessly out of.

_ 'She doesn't need you to worry yourself to death'_

_ 'She doesn't need you to worry'_

**_ 'She doesn't need you'_**

He closed his eyes and sighed, half the window fogging over with his breath. Opening his eyes after a moment, he drew a small smiley face in the middle of the condensation and watched blankly as it slowly faded away until he couldn't find it anymore. He rested his forehead against the cold glass.

'If… If I become strong enough… will she need me? Will she need me to be strong for her when I get stronger than I am now?'

* * *

"I'm worried about him."

"Huh?"

"All he's been doing lately is training. His grades at school are slipping so fast you would think he had been disturbed for months instead of just a week. Do you think… he could be skipping school to go out and train?"

"…"

"Goku?"

"… No. He's been going to school."

"Oh."

"… wouldn't they have sent something if he wasn't showing up to school?"

"Yeah, you're right. They would."

"…"

"I still think we should watch him."

"…"

"You know, just to make sure he doesn't turn out to be some delinquent. The poor boy is so confused and scared because of Kris's…"

"…He'll be okay."

"Yeah."

* * *

"Hello? Dr. Morey?"

"No, I'm sorry, this is his caretaker. Dr. Morey is sleeping at the moment. Would you like me to take a message and he can call you back in about an hour?"

"Yes, thank you."

"What's your message?"

"Tell Dr. Morey that I have some information on an escaped lab animal from the compound he worked at 13 years ago he might be interested in. My number is..."

* * *

"Hey, Vegeta?"

"What is it Kakarotto? I'm busy."

"I was just wondering if Ranu had come by here recently. I would try to sense his ki myself, but he's suppressing it. I figured he might be here checking on Kris."

"Hm. No, he hasn't been here lately."

"Oh. Um… so, how's Kris?"

"The same."

"… I see."

"Hn. And I assume that the boy's been upset this entire time as well."

"Sort of. He's been training like crazy recently."

"Good. He should be."

"Yeah, 'cept Chichi's been really worried about him when he's at school. And he's gotten really distant since Kris has been like this… and he didn't come home last night."

"Hm."

* * *

Bra sat down on the sofa with some of her homework and flicked on the television to have some background noise, not really caring what channel it was on.

"New information on the outcome of the trial of Dr. Morey today folks," an announcer reported.

"It seems that the prosecution was never able to come up with enough hard evidence to pin the murder and torture charges on Dr. Morey. As to the charges of traumatizing a small group of small children, he has been fined with the expenses of every child's counseling fees and additional money for pain and suffering. The doctor happily complied, saying that it would be nothing that would much dent his ample pocketbook…"

The announcer droned on as Bra watched the screen with a sort of sadness before she turned back to her homework and scribbled down answers, her mind only half on the actual questions.

After awhile, the pencil dropped from her hand and she made no move to pick it back up.

* * *

"U-uh?" Ranu muttered, cracking his eyes open. It was bright. Why was it so bright? Was it morning? Noon? What time was it? Where was he?

He opened his eyes fully, though the bright light above him forced him to turn his head. He noticed something was wrong immediately when he found it difficult to do even that. And it was hard to breathe. He tried to move his arms only to find that they wouldn't respond like he wanted them to. They twitched uselessly when he tried to flex them. His breath became more labored.

It was white. It was a completely white little room. He couldn't remember how he got there. It reeked of disinfectant that burned his sensitive nose and made his breathing harder than it should have been.

There was something horribly wrong, he knew that. But he couldn't move more than a couple of inches and it felt as if some great weight had been placed on his chest and he couldn't move it, he couldn't breathe! He started panicking and it felt as if he would pass out if he couldn't get more oxygen.

"Now now, don't get so upset," a kind sounding voice said. A woman and man dragged a machine in on a wheeled cart and set it up next to him, fitting a plastic mask over his mouth and nose and switching the machine on.

He immediately noticed that he felt much calmer and his breathing was a lot easier. Which served to panic the un-affected part of his mind even more, but nothing could be done about it.

The last flickering sparks of fear faded from his eyes as they closed again.

"Don't worry. We're not going to hurt you. Dr. Morey is just a bit curious about you and your little friend. Don't worry. Everything's going to be alright..."


	22. Breaking

Has it been two days yet? …I got bored. Bad me.

Ahahaha!! I'm a freakin' _genius_!

Information Fairy: She's gone on another ego trip has she?

Reason Fairy: -nods-

Ah, I love myself, I really do. Genius genius genius… -rocks back and forth-

Responsibility Fairy: … damn, she really has gone off the deep end this time, hasn't she?

Information Fairy: Probably.

Angst Fairy: And as one of the main contributors to this chapter, I must introduce it since the others seem incapable. –motions toward a dazed Inspiration Fairy and a crazed egotistical Krys who seems to be laughing boastfully at the ceiling-

Mm-hmm. As such, I, Angst Fairy will introduce this chapter. Yes, it's another cliffhanger.

Information Fairy: You forgot the review replies.

Angst Fairy: -glares- ..._ fine. _

Aw, Revan-sama did not rush me. She just told me to hurry my lazy butt up. (joking!) Truthfully, sometimes I need to be told that people are rabidly awaiting the next chapter. Because then I usually can tear myself away from whatever important thing I happen to be doing (video games, television, eating, sleeping, and wandering aimlessly around the internet) to get my under-used brain to churn out another chapter. Ah, I is teh spoiled!!! –gonk-

-catches the mint cookie and munches it- Hm. 'Tis okay kiwi-chan! Everything'll be… well, I can't really say anything, or else I spoil the end! (which I haven't decided yet on anyway) But I doubt I'll have Ranu experimented on… though I might throw that in just for the hell of it. –laughs maniacally- ….disregard the last sentence. :

Hey! QueenPhoenix reviewed! A lot! –huggles- Ah, I say the same to you; I have not yet decided whether or not Ranu will suffer too. I think the last chapter was sufficient for now, but who knows, maybe later I'll decide to break the lot of 'em. I'm evil that way.

Breaking

"Bulma?! Bulma?! Open up! Somebody open the door!!"

Trunks jumped at the sudden yelling and pounding on the door and almost dropped the cup of coffee he was carrying. He checked the ki of the person to find that it was Chichi. Expanding his senses a little he noticed that Goku was nearby, near his father's, and wavering erratically, like he was in a panic. That alone was enough to make Trunks forget completely about his damn coffee and rush to the door and let Chichi inside.

"Trunks?" Chichi said, panting slightly from her yelling. "Where… where's Bulma? Is Kris still here? Bra's still in school right?!"

"Slow down!" he shouted over her increasingly frantic questioning. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Oh god!" she sobbed suddenly, though no tears were present. She started shaking and he led her to a chair nearby to sit down. Once she was seated, she grabbed his arm and looked at him sternly, switching from a severely shaken woman to the harsh Amazon/drill sergeant that allowed her to stay in control of three Saiyan boys on a daily basis.

"Trunks," she said. "I need you to get Bulma _right now_. And check on Kris right after that. Call Bra's school, tell them to send her home right away, understand?"

All he could do was nod dumbly and wonder what happened. He started to move, to go do what he had been told, when she stopped him again.

"Trunks… tell Bulma that Ranu's been kidnapped. Okay?"

He could only stare and nod dumbly.

* * *

"Oh! It's alright, I'm just checking in on you. You can finish whatever you were doing, or whatever…" Trunks said hurriedly, closing the door again and speed-walking down the hall.

Kris sat in the middle of the floor, left staring at the closed door in front of her. He had smelled like he was scared. Of something.

'Hm,' Kris thought. 'I wonder what it was anyway…'

She slowly got up off the floor and popped a couple joints that had gotten sore during the two hours that she had been sitting there. She wondered idly if they would mind if she left her room without permission. She decided that if they did, they would say so and put her back in it when they caught her, and walked a bit unsteadily across the room and opened the door.

She walked out into the hall and tilted her head towards the sounds of things breaking and what sounded like crying. Deciding to see what it was that was so odd, she slowly made her way towards the room where the sounds were coming from.

* * *

"Damnit…" Vegeta hissed, removing his fist from the wall.

"T-they left a _note_?" Bulma said, in shock.

"W-we got a letter in the mail," Chichi stuttered, beginning to cry again. "It said… it said, i-if we want Ranu un… unharmed, we have to kn-knock Kris out and leave her at a drop-off point… t-they gave instructions…"

"_God damnit!_" Vegeta yelled, and just barely restrained himself from punching yet another hole through the wall to vent his anger and frustrations. Goku was standing off to the side, head lowered so that his bangs covered his eyes, not saying anything.

At that moment, Trunks rushed back in, breathing hard.

"I… I called Bra's school and then called Bra on her cell phone… told her to come back home as soon as she can."

Bulma nodded and motioned shakily for Trunks to sit down too. He did.

"What…" Chichi whispered. "What're we going to do?"

"We can't give Kris to whoever these psychopaths are!" Bulma exclaimed.

Kris poked her head into the doorway, slightly curious as to what was going on and why they said her name. She knew who these people were… these were nice people, yes… and she knew their names and what they were like and knew that they were worried about her. She didn't understand why though. She was healthy, right? So why weren't they pleased?

"I…" Chichi sobbed again, hiding her face in her hands. "I just keep thinking… what are they doing to him? Why hasn't he come back? How come no one can sense him?! What if they-" and she choked on her own sobs before she could finish the sentence anyway. Goku shuddered once.

Kris blinked slowly as she thought. 'Him'? Who were they talking about? Why was Chichi crying? Slowly, her brain worked it out.

'Okay… how many boys are here?' she thought to herself and silently counted.

'Alright… now, which ones aren't here?' and she listed them to herself.

'Now, which ones would the Chichi woman most likely be crying about being gone?' and she narrowed it down.

'Gohan, Goten, Ranu.' She blinked again, a bit surprised. She slowly breathed in, taking in scents from the people in the room. Goten's scent was very recent, only hours old. Gohan's was a little older, but still within the last few hours. Ranu's however… that was almost two days old. She blinked again as they resumed talking. Could that be who they were talking about?

"Do…" Bulma said suddenly. "Do you think that this Dr. Morey could have something to do with it?"

Kris's pupils dilated.

"Of course!" Chichi yelled suddenly. "Who else?! It's not a coincidence that a week after that horrible show comes on and Kris practically goes comatose that Ranu gets kidnapped! He probably wants to get to her so he can continue whatever sick perverted experiments he was doing to her!"

Goku's fists clenched, but he didn't move.

"Did they give a deadline?" Vegeta said suddenly.

"Ah… yes. They said by tomorrow at noon."

Trunks spoke then, quietly and looking intently down at the grain of the wood on the table.

"Do you think that…" he said. "… that he'll do… _things_… to Ranu too? Even before tomorrow?..."

No one said anything, but Chichi burst into tears again.

Kris's eyes widened and she trembled, slinking back from the doorway.

'Ranu Ranu Ranu… he was the nice one, yes? He smelled nice… yes, that was him. But why can't I?...'

She tried hard to remember what he looked like, what his voice was like. Why couldn't she remember?

_ "Mommy!" a child's voice sobbed. "Mommy! Daddy! SOMEBODY!..." the child gagged and a wet splattering sound followed. She whimpered. Crying. "Somebody... please… I don't wanna feel bad…please…"_

She slowly walked back in the direction of her room. They had it taken care of. They'd figure out a way to get the nice-boy-Ranu safe. Even if that meant giving her back to Dr. Morey. She didn't really mind that much. She knew that she was already damaged and spoiled. If the doctor wanted her… well, who was she to say he couldn't have her again? And Ranu was more valuable than she was. They would want him back. He wasn't tainted in the way she was. He had always been the ray of pure unfiltered light, the whitest most pure soul where she had not touched it, the cleanest sharpest smell…

_ Snap!_

She stopped suddenly.

_ "Mommy!" another child's voice sobbed. "Mommy! Daddy!"_

Her eyes widened again and she shuddered. Shaking her head violently, she ran back to her room and crawled underneath the bed.

_ "Daddy! Where are you?!" the child continued, his voice echoing._

She found an old wristband that had been lost weeks before. It was Ranu's… she brought it slowly up to her face and inhaled. Yeah… there was that scent…

_ "Mommy! Daddy! SOMEBODY!..."_

She jerked back. She had imagined the scent laced with stomach acid smell and fear and despair…

_ The two arms clung more tightly, protectively, and helplessly. Despair seeped into the scent…_

She shook. That had been because of her, hadn't it?

_ "No! I would never want to play with some…some… monkey-tailed monster!"_

She dropped the wristband back onto the floor and stared, tears welling up in her eyes.

'No… no no no no no, please, don't, don't do that, please... don't…'

_ Ranu was holding his hand out, smiling and happy, and light seemed to pour over him and love him like he was the sun's own beloved child._

_ "Come on!"_

She whimpered. "I can't…"

_ "How come ya got a tail?" "Don't be stupid Charlie! It's 'cause it's a freak, that's why!"_

"Stop it!" she yelled, grabbing her head and curling into a defensive ball.

_ "I only want you to be happy," Ranu said, tears streaming down his face. "I love you, Kris."_

Her hands remained fisted in her hair. She ignored the tingling in the back of her mind that alerted her to the fact that the others had sensed a sudden spike of ki from her.

_ "Somebody!... please… help…"_

She giggled suddenly, her body tensing up, then relaxing as it slid out from under the bed and stood.

"Hehehe…" she giggled, fingers twitching. Her body tensed and relaxed again. She grinned widely and held up one hand toward the windowed wall in her room. An instant later, it had been reduced to so much rubble and broken glass on the lawn. She laughed at her own destructiveness and levitated, ignoring the panic signals she was receiving from everyone else. She blasted into the air and let every sense she had take over and let her find what she was looking for.

Sinner grinned widely and stood in the middle of Saint's tainted remains, laughing.


	23. And We All Fall Down

Well, I think we've reached the climax. Now, all there really is… is the resolution, and perhaps later a bit of experimentation. I might try to learn how to do lemony things with these two… or maybe play around with the over-used ideas I've always wanted to try. Like random turns-you-into-a-baby rays, gender swapping, body swapping, all that good stuff. Might be nice. It'd certainly be different from the damned angst-fest this fic is turning out to be.

For some reason this chapter deals more with Sinner-Kris. I appear to be dragging that particular idea out for all it's worth. It works though. I enjoy it.

Also, if you'll notice on my bio, I've changed some things. Please go there and check my new LJ for updates on fic progress and the like.

…it's come to my attention that one of my favorite DBZ authors, Chuquita, has had a story of hers removed for containing script/chat format. The author's notes at the beginning and end are in that format, HOWEVER, the story itself is not.

I'm sorry staff, does that mean doing THIS:

Me: Hi! I'm introducing myself! Lookit me! –waves-

… means that now MY story will be deleted for containing script/chat format? Fuck-tards. Look at the damned stories before you go screwing around with people's ART.

"I'm sorry, your painting contains the color blue. We'll have to be burning it now, and shall be taking your canvases away from you for about a month. Have a nice day!"

… what pisses me off even MORE however is that I know exactly who reported it. And I will make their life hell. More details on my LJ, go check it if you want to know more. Though I don't know why you would want to.

I did everything in this story with exact purpose. The conversation between the two scientists, the location of the new compound, everything. Try to keep that in mind while reading.

And We All Fall Down

'Oh. _Oh!_ There it is. There we go.'

Energy tingled ominously at the back of her head, the base of her spine, up and down her back, tickled her tail so that it thrashed angrily and ruffled the fur.

'Now now tail, it's alright. There there. Calm down. I'm alright. Everything's gonna be good, isn't it? Yes…'

She landed in front of its doors. Oh, how it had been hidden! Just a little thing, a little Capsule house on the edges of a clearing, away from the rubble. Beautifully poetic, where it had been placed. How sweet. How very ironically sweet.

It washed over her mind and soothed and stung at once.

'Oh, oh, I remember, yes… he knew I would, didn't he? Hoped I would be so scared! So very very frightened, shaking and mewling, I would have! Oh yes, if only… foolish man, indeed…'

'Don't be so angry, little thing…' Sinner whispered soothingly in her ear. 'We must have fun, yes? Oh, remember? Remember how prettily they bled before? Such a pretty red, such a powerful smell, human blood. We must _savor_ it little one. They will not allow it otherwise. Save your anger… it is useless. We must have some fun now.'

She grinned widely and giggled.

The door to the house was flung across the clearing with a wave of her hand. Small security cameras hung on the walls and in corners exploded, not wanting to witness what would come. It alerted security, who rushed above-ground to deal with whatever it was. They came up out of tunnels dug out of the ground. Not many. There hadn't been a need. But it didn't matter. If they had pit the entire population against her in that moment, it wouldn't have much mattered.

She grinned and bared her fangs at them.

* * *

"Jesus fucking Christ!" a man just below the surface commented.

"What?" his co-worker questioned. The first man was standing on a chair with one ear on the ceiling, listening.

"It… there's screams up there. Here, listen," and he moved off of the chair so that the other man could listen too.

"Like hell," he scoffed. "We're supposed to be dealing with work right now, not listening to what's going on on the surface."

Looking a bit concerned, but submissive, the first man returned to mixing various powders and liquids, labeling jars and whatnot.

"Hey," he said suddenly. "You married or anything?"

"Why?" he grunted back.

"Just curious. Are ya? Is she pretty?"

"…yes."

"Any kids?"

"… three. Two girls and a boy."

"Ah, good! Must be nice, being married," he said, idlly stirring a liquid in a glass container. "Myself… well, I wouldn't much know. Had a girlfriend once… but, it didn't really work out!" and he laughed a bit unconvincingly.

The only response was the clinking of glass stirrers bumping into the walls of glass containers.

* * *

"Ah… ha ha ha ha…" she grinned perversely, not bothering to wipe swiftly clotting blood off of her. She straightened up and stared at the ground contemplatively for a moment. Eyes quickly flicking over toward the still-open tunnel.

"Hnnnnnn…"

She sniffed the air, but could only smell the coppery smell human blood had. She snorted distastefully and swiftly descended into the bowels of a hidden compound that had been financed entirely by a certain doctor.

* * *

Ranu slowly woke up. The sound of rushing air alerted him to the fact that he still had a mask over his face that was sedating him. He would've stayed asleep, except for… there was something _there_… it screamed at his unconscious mind and roused him from his sleep. But… now that he was awake… it had faded. The tainted air reclaimed his consciousness.

* * *

She tore through everything. The electrical wiring, the furniture, anything she could reach was destroyed. Her heart beat frantically in her chest, fueling her, making her pant in excitement. She screamed an ecstatic challenge, and it echoed through the hallway; it made the walls tremble and alarms went off. She frowned at the tremendous noise the alarms made and sneered violently at them. A few wide ki blasts remedied it quickly enough, and left nice looking blackened craters in the wake. She regarded them for a moment, considering, then grinning widely again as a new game formed in her mind. They _did_ look pretty, in a perverse morbid way.

"Stop it!"

She stopped, the grin falling to become a petulant frown. She turned to see who had disturbed her.

'_Oh._'

"Stop this right now! Or you'll never see your companion again. You don't want that, do you?" he said, stretching his hand as far as the machinery would allow him. He was without an aide, so she assumed that he had been abandoned in her chaos. A pity. She would have enjoyed mucking about in more gore…

Well. There was still him after all.

"Don't grin at me like that now," he admonished, wheezing slightly.

She sniffed the air again. Oh, how he reeked! Just like before, that one time before, when he screamed and she had reacted to it like a dog whistle, turning around so quickly her little feet had skidded across the slippery bloodied tile, and tore into him with fervor… oh, so much like before he was! Weaker, though. But that just made him easier prey. Saiyans were never much picky about whom they killed, weak or strong, old or young. Strong was preferred, but only because it amused them for longer. At the moment, in this circumstance, she didn't care. She had sensed, in some distant suppressed corner of her bent mind, that they were coming quickly. She had suppressed her energy at first, evading them, but they knew her now. The only thing that slowed them from catching her and stopping her progress was their own fear of what state they would find her in.

"My, my…" she purred finally. He raised an eyebrow at this. "How… the strong… have fallen…" and she taunted him, staring mockingly at him from beneath half-lidded eyes.

"Do you not understand me?!" he raged at the indignity. "I said, if you don't stop this foolishness right now, your companion dies! Do you want him to die?!"

She laughed at that.

"How will you kill him doctor? How? With no one to aid you, you are… helpless, yes? There is no one else left in this compound. I've killed any who remained…" she gestured vaguely to herself, as if the blood and gore dripping from her wasn't noticeable enough.

"Oh, did you know that I never forgave you?" she continued, sounding as if she was gearing up for a sob-story. "I never got those images out of my head, they were always there, making me guilty, making me _unclean_, and I knew this and tried to ignore it. I pretended I was innocent for so long!" she laughed at herself, finally having a captive audience to listen to her confession. "I pretended I was worthy, when I knew myself to not be… and I thought I would be safe. But you didn't forget, did you? You knew, how I had never repented for it, never cried near enough to make up for it. No tears shall save this little one now, no amount of crying can wash away this filth from me. And I don't care. You see? I don't care."

And he did listen to her confession, uncaring and cold of the Sinner's lamentations, damning her before she had sinned, and had created the duality of Saint and Sinner within her all himself. He had created her himself, this twisted little girl who had grown up without progressing in the least. Stunting her spirit's growth, constantly there, reminding her that she was _his_, only worth the joy he gathered from the data on her pain. He _owned_ her spirit, always.

The grin returned to her face, and flames stirred themselves in her eyes as she rounded on him. She didn't care if he owned her soul, owned her very being. She would prove that she, at the very least, owned his life in return.

If she had to be the Fallen Angel, she'd drag God down with her into Hell.

Blood stained hands ripped apart plastic tubes and wires, flinging them away as the first sight of blood (what an ugly color of blood, so very dull, not that pretty bright living red at all) stirred the very core of her mind into a frenzy, and it all became a blur. A hand sinking satisfyingly into the gut, claws ripping the flesh away as it pulled back, internal organs spilling messily into his lap, leaking fluid all over the fabric of the wheelchair and dripping slowly to the floor. Removing one entire eye from its socket in a furious swipe of clawed hands, the sickening sound of it hitting the opposite wall wetly. The feeling of having cold teeth, being exposed to the air conditioned, sterile, cold air as her teeth had been bared the entire time and were unused to such treatment.

The burn of tainted stinking air that reeked of death as it was forced in and out of her lungs and throat made her pant. Somehow, during the chaos, his intestines had become splattered all over her feet. She stared at them dispassionately, eyes slowly dieing and fading back into the dull emotionless orbs they had been before. She turned around and began walking away.

Sinner stood blankly in an empty Afterlife, unsure of what to do now that his one mission had been completed.

* * *

Ranu groaned as he came back to consciousness again. Blinking slowly, he checked for the mask, wondering what it was that woke him.

The mask and the smell of medicine were gone.

He finally opened his eyes fully and saw something that would later give him nightmares. Kris was looking down at him while he lay there, her eyes staring holes right through him. A bloody, gore-spattered Kris who looked as if she were a zombie out of a horror movie.

He gasped and wished he hadn't. Not only did he discover that it was still difficult to breathe and hurt his lungs severely by gasping, he had inhaled the absolute reek of death and human blood and bodily fluids that Kris was covered in. He choked and started coughing.

Kris frowned and helped him sit up, dully noticing that where her hands touched him, a large stain appeared. She decided to ignore it for now while he hacked. After a minute or so, the coughing quieted.

"K-… Kris?" he wheezed, panting. He looked up at her from the bed he was on, eyes wide and, to Kris, innocent and trusting, and maybe fearful. Something in her mind shifted, allowing her to remember that she was still covered in filth, still the Sinner, and that Ranu himself was still mostly pure. She shouldn't be touching him. He would hate her.

She jerked back, eyes wide.

"N-no!" Ranu exclaimed, noticing the panic that had started to form in previously dull empty eyes. He coughed a couple times before continuing. "N-no, it's… it's okay… really…" And then he remembered that he had been drugged and confined to a bed for who know how long, and Kris had had to come and rescue him. Not only was he weaker than ever before, he had forced Kris deeper into this than he had ever wanted. She was hurt now, because of him. Because he wasn't strong enough to break free on his own, because Kris herself could never deal with her past traumas well, and his ineptitude had caused her to break. Again. Worse.

He had never failed at anything before. He was beginning to wonder if that knowledge would begin to break him as well.

Before he could say anymore, it was too late. Kris knew this as well, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she dropped to the floor. Ranu started and tried to move to catch her, but his limbs still wouldn't work properly and he only succeeded in making himself fall off the bed just as his uncle, Trunks, and Vegeta burst into the room.

"Ranu!" Goku exclaimed, rushing over to where he lay and propping him up. "Are you okay?"

'No,' he wanted to say. 'No, I'm not alright! Where's Kris gone? I don't know who that girl over there is! I think I hurt Kris-chan, Uncle Goku. I didn't mean to, but I did. I'm so stupid. I hurt her real bad. I don't think I can take that. I want Kris-chan back. Why can't she come back?'

But he just nodded jerkily.


	24. Angel

LAST CHAPTER. No, don't argue. I need a break desperately. I said I would have a break before, and it ended up being Redemption. This time I'm serious. The only thing I'm planning is a depressing angsty Spirited Away one-shot. Which is a bit exciting, seeing as how it'll be my first non-DBZ fic. Anyway, I need a break to sort out things and what-not. I'm not saying this is the end, but it's the last chapter for this fic. The rest I suspect will be completely pointless entertaining drivel with no artistic value at all. (Which also means I'll get twice as many reviews, if my plan works out…) But it will be funny. So I feel better about it.

There are a lot of things in this chapter that I wish I could _show_ you. I wish I could draw, so that I could show you exactly what I meant when I typed this, show you the exact feeling, the exact expression. But I can't. Thus, the imagery in this is somewhat lacking. And the end is a bit abrupt, but I got impatient. Deal with it. I'm snappish today.

I want to thank all of the people who reviewed, every single one. You guys give me the ambition to keep writing. :) I love you guys.

Angel

Ranu lay in a bed next to Kris's, staring at the ceiling and thinking. She had been cleaned off, and her clothes had been changed. The bloodied clothes had swiftly been destroyed. But no matter how much they wanted to pretend that they had never existed in the first place, they couldn't. They were taking it very well, considering. Bra and Trunks had been the most shaken, understandably. Bulma had cried, but insisted that Kris was still good, still welcome and loved, no matter what she had done. She insisted that Kris was still that sweet little girl that had been brought to her years ago, underfed and starved for attention, that she was simply "misguided", as she had called it. Vegeta and Goku simply looked sadly at her and Ranu. Though Goku had been the one who talked with Ranu, asking him simple questions to keep his mind from trying to kill itself with it's constant self-questioning.

But Goku wasn't there right then, to keep Ranu's mind off the still unconscious Kris.

His body was still a bit sore, but he could breathe normally and could now move and walk by himself. But he had nowhere to go at the moment, so it didn't matter. He shifted so he was laying on his side, facing Kris, and stared at her sleeping form.

'… what am I going to do now?' he thought despairingly to himself, sighing. It _had_ been shocking, to see Kris like that. It had been horrifying to see all the dead corpses, ripped open and full of huge gaping wounds that had stopped bleeding. He had had to be carried out, but he could still hear the muffled thump of their bodies hitting the wall when Vegeta had kicked one aside so that they could walk. He remembered that Trunks had weakly protested at that, and that Goku had flinched. He himself had felt like throwing up, but could never quite accomplish that.

And the way Kris's limbs hung lifelessly as Vegeta carried her out… she had been absolutely covered in gore, as if she had slipped and slid around in it, made little snow angels in it, only instead of snow she had used the blood spilt all over the floor. The image made his throat constrict painfully. Had she really done this? It couldn't have been her, he told himself. Why would she do something like that? He knew that she cared deeply for him, her actions had spoken volumes when it came to that!

Why else would she let him get so close to her when everyone else had been pushed away? Why did she put up with his endless antics, his constant barrage of questions that she somehow always knew the answers to, why would she always help him study for tests she herself had already passed when she had other things to do, if she didn't care for him?

No, it wasn't a question of her affection. He already knew that she liked him, even if it was as a deep friend and nothing more. No, the question was… why had she killed for him? Had it even been solely for him in the first place?

He would not think about it being solely for him. To think that she had torn apart living thinking beings only to save him, when she could've simply overpowered them and rescued him… to think that she had been so enraged by his imprisonment that she had killed so many people to satisfy her need to protect him… that was far too much. It was almost scary in its intensity. It made him recoil in fear, to think that there was someone who loved him enough to outright kill anyone who had any connection whatsoever to his pain. That was simply too much to deal with.

So, what had it been then? If it wasn't only for him, what was it for? Revenge? That didn't seem like Kris. She was dark and unforgiving in her revenge, but never outright cruel. Never with killing intent. He had seen her deal out what she liked to call "justice" to their peers at school (despite his many and frequent protests). And it had always been a taunting, playful sort of vengeance. It had never been done with a clear intent to seriously harm. It had backfired once or twice, and sometimes people did get hurt, but he had always seen that moment that she realized she had gone too far. He had seen it in her eyes, the immediate guilt that softened them, and then the automatic shield she slammed in place while she considered how to make it better, how to apologize properly without making it seem as if she was actually sorry. He knew that Kris, the one he had confessed his love to, the one that hit him on the head and called him an idiot, the one who he remembered very near broke his arm when said arm had been used in snapping the back of her bra playfully. He knew her.

But this one continued to scare him. And the fact that he was scared of her only made his throat tighten even more and made his stomach twist around like it was in pain and writhing. He hated that.

So, he lay there in bed and thought. What about this one scared him so much? Why was it that whenever he thought about those dull eyes, he felt like he was helpless and weak? He knew he wasn't. He knew very well that he was steadily catching up to the others in terms of power, and that he was stronger than Kris. He hardly ever hesitated to show that off before. So, why was it that he felt so helpless when he thought of Kris?

He thought for awhile. It could be that he felt that way because he couldn't do anything to prevent her condition. He couldn't stop this from happening. It made sense…

He frowned. That was why he felt so powerless? Just because he couldn't have stopped Kris from… what? Finding out that her past demons had never quite died all the way? Stopped her from snapping when the pressure became too much? Stopped her from ripping her own half-healed emotional wounds open again? No, he realized, he was powerless to stop her from doing these things to herself, and there was no way anyone could have protected her from that.

_ "… Ranu, no matter how hard everyone tries at healing the wounds in her heart, they'll always be there. But the fact is, she rejects everyone else when they even attempt to get close to her. She's closed herself up into her own protected little bubble, and no one can get in… except you."_

He sighed again and nodded to himself. That was true. The words his uncle had said that day still held true, he supposed. No one could ever touch Kris unless she wanted them to, and her uncle and himself were the only ones allowed. Everyone else she considered a threat to herself, so she never let them get close enough to hurt. Or… was that wrong?

If she was afraid of getting hurt by them, why hadn't she closed herself off completely? She knew that he would've stayed by her, even if she had decided randomly one day to live on the other side of the planet, in the middle of the desert, all by herself. So if she was so afraid for herself that she would cut herself off from other people, why hadn't she done that? He knew it wasn't past her to go to extremes when she became scared or excited. So why? What other reason could she possibly have for cutting herself off?

_ She jerked back, eyes wide._

_ "N-no!"__ Ranu exclaimed, noticing the panic that had started to form in previously dull empty eyes. He coughed a couple times before continuing. "N-no, it's… it's okay… really…" _

She had been scared then! Scared of… him? His reaction? He had told her it was alright, that he wasn't angry at her, wasn't disgusted, so what had she been so scared of? Granted, it could've been that he was so weak then, but he had been clean and well, so there was no need for her to be scared about his condition… in fact, he had been downright squeaky clean when compared to the gore that she had been covered in…

_ Snap!_

Oh. Oh, that couldn't be it…

_ "Let's get you out of this shirt, Ranu… look, it's stained now…" And sure enough, there was a couple of dark handprints on his white shirt where Kris had helped him sit up._

What… had Kris been frightened because she hadn't realized she was covered in blood? No, she had been well aware of what she was doing and her state… was that it then? She didn't want to get him dirty? Why?

He thought about it for a long time, before finally realizing it. Piecing it together bit by bit, searching his memory for clues, and he managed to finally realize it.

She was afraid _for_ him.

She was afraid for everyone, wasn't she? His mind raced around in circles, working frantically. She was afraid that she would somehow get them _all_ dirty, like she was! She had done that before, she had killed people before, that had been how she had escaped in the first place, and she must've been so much more bloody and dirty then, because she was so much smaller, so less controlled than she was now, and god, what had happened to her once she woke up then? What had the girl felt when she woke up from her post-slaughter exhaustion, covered in gore and dirt and laying in the rotting remains of actual people and rubble scattered everywhere from her own fury? She was still so afraid of getting them dirty somehow, she still saw herself covered in their flesh, and she was so afraid of getting that taint on other people that she purposely cut herself off, refused to let other people touch her because she believed the only people immune to her disease-taint were Vegeta and himself!

He reeled mentally for a few minutes at the revelation. She thought that badly of herself. She was that concerned with other's safety and happiness that she kept herself away from what she considered their purity, and at the same time didn't want to hurt them by going away completely. That…

He stared in shock at the sleeping form of his best friend. That was so entirely different from the selfish, arrogant, self-assured girl he knew. He thought he knew. He lay there in shock, slowly processing the information. Minutes passed. And he was slowly forced into the realization that he didn't know this girl as well as he thought he did. And that she obviously didn't believe he was strong enough at the moment to ward off her re-strengthened taint. And that made some feral, angry part of his mind stir uncomfortably and push the shock out of the way. It didn't matter. Kris thought she would stain him somehow if he got too close? Well, that was too bad. What was so horrible about being stained anyway?

He stretched out and carefully got out of the bed, mindful of his still-sore limbs. He shuffled over to Kris's bed and leaned over it, both hands on either side of Kris's body, holding him up as he inspected her face. She slept peacefully enough. Her breath made his bangs quiver against his forehead, and he felt something in his stomach quiver as well. He ignored it. Looking at her like this, she didn't seem as if she was capable of killing people at all. She didn't look like she was scared or sad or angry… she was just sleeping peacefully. He smiled a little at that. That was nice, to see her being peaceful. Even if it was just sleeping. He wanted to hold her against him for awhile, but he didn't move. Moving would probably wake her up, and he didn't want to deal with whatever would happen when she woke up. There was enough of that.

He frowned again. What was the point in worrying about this kind of stuff, really? It didn't much matter, other than that he got a good look at what motivated Kris. It let him see something that she hadn't let him see. He had found that out about her all on his own. He felt a flicker of self-satisfaction and pride at that. But really, why was he worrying so much about Kris being scared to hurt other people? He knew she couldn't hurt him. Only he could hurt himself, he had control over that much. And if she was so afraid of hurting people, then he would just have to tell her how silly she was being and hold onto her and keep her still until she understood that and stopped being afraid.

'Mm…' he thought idly, eyes half-lidded. 'That sounds nice…' He purred absent-mindedly, a low rumbling sound that vibrated all the way down his arms. He hadn't really noticed that he now had half his face buried in Kris's hair and was gently nuzzling it, too lost in the pleasurable smell of her hair and the vibration of his own purring to pay much attention to the outside world. The stresses of the past few days melted in relief. There was only so much one could take before he decided that none of it mattered much anyway. They were all safe and at home, and any threats to their safety had been destroyed. There was food, security, warmth… what more could they want? There was nothing to be concerned about here… everything was okay here, nothing bad was going to happen, so he could just relax and let himself go. That sounded real nice after having dealt with all the stress and guilt and threats. Nope, nobody was going to mess with _his_ Kris-chan for quite a while, so he could rest easy for a bit. And he didn't really find it odd or alarming in the least that he thought of her as his. She was, wasn't she? Granted, she wasn't his mate… yet. But that didn't really matter.

In fact… the more he thought about it… _nothing_ really mattered much right now. His purr intensified.

And the first thing Kris realized was that somebody's collar and neck was in front of her face, and there was a really nice rumbling vibration that she could feel in her chest as it vibrated the air. An overwhelming feeling of _safe_ came over her, and she closed her eyes again and sighed.

The sudden breath on his lower neck alerted Ranu and snapped him partially out of his daze. He removed his face from her hair and paused his purring, moving to look at Kris's face. Damn. He had moved and woken her up. He frowned a little at himself. He should've been more careful in not waking her up.

The stop in purring caused Kris to open her eyes again slightly.

"Nnn?" Kris grunted, still groggy and not quite comprehending what was going on. Which was a rather good thing for Ranu, considering he had chosen that moment to decide that since she was already awake, there was no consequence in grabbing her and hauling her over to his own bed, where he sat and held her still on his lap. She _was_ already awake after all. There was no harm in waking her further now, in his mind.

Kris yawned and rubbed at her eyes. Blinking sleep away, she looked curiously up at Ranu's face and blinked again. He looked odd. She wasn't sure she knew what it was… he wasn't quite frowning, but he wasn't smiling in that happy-go-lucky way he had. He looked… stern? That didn't seem right. He had never had that look before… well, no, she remembered. He had had it before sometimes. Whenever she was doing something wrong that he didn't agree with. Whenever she was particularly cruel to some poor sap who dared bother her, or some such nonsense. He didn't like it when she got out of control and violent. He was always afraid that she would hurt someone or herself when she got like that…

Either way, it was somehow wrong that he had that look now, even as he was holding her very gently, like she would break. She blinked again, becoming more awake. Had she done something wrong? She must've hurt someone for him to look so seriously at her…

And when it finally crashed back into her mind she stiffened, eyes wide and tail-fur bristled. No no no! Why was he holding her?! It was bad! She had-!

"_No._" he growled, holding her tighter. Damn it, he knew this would happen!

"L-let go!" she stuttered, struggling weakly, but picking up more strength steadily.

"N-no!" she said, louder. "_Let go_!" and she kicked and thrashed.

"No." he replied flatly, only moving so that he could restrain her from flailing around. He didn't want to hurt her, not at all. But he knew, somehow, that she couldn't be allowed to escape again. He couldn't let her run away or retreat inside herself again, or else he might never get the real Kris back. He couldn't let that happen.

Kris screeched at him and snapped angrily at his arms, which had pinned her arms against her body, but was unable to inflict any damage. She slapped at him with her tail, but it was obviously no painful enough for him to let go. His legs had her hips and upper legs pinned to the bed, while his own tail had wrapped around her ankles and was effectively holding her legs completely still.

She snarled and bristled at him, still squirming, though the wiggling slowly died down and she couldn't continue snarling when she had to pant for air. It had taken 3 minutes to subdue her.

"Hm," Ranu said, not tired in the least from her struggles. "Nice to see you've still got your normal amount of spunk at least." He smirked slightly, though he half-expected her to slump against him in defeat.

She growled irritably at him instead and jerked against his arms once. He listened to her pant for a minute or so before speaking again.

"… Feel better now?"

She huffed. He smiled at this, but decided to continue to hold onto her until she would snap at him again. Then, he would be satisfied that she was normal again. Then, he could let go of her (for awhile at least) and everything could go back to normal. She would hit him for being stupid like she always did and he could pout cutely at her until she melted and tried to pretend like she didn't care if he pouted or not, and the he could lunge at her and hug her again and she would beat on his head half-heartedly until she finally gave in with an exasperated sigh and rested her hands on his back while he nuzzled her stomach. Everything would be alright again and they could forget that it had ever happened. Maybe one day they'd talk about it again and be sad about it, but not today. Today should've been like all the days before, where she had been alright.

She huffed again, which caused him to look at the back of her head curiously, like it would reveal some secret to him. It didn't. A sudden tightening in Kris's body made him suddenly hold tighter again, afraid she would resume her struggling. But she didn't. The tightness remained, and she twitched forcefully, head bowed. He was becoming more and more confused. If she wasn't trying to escape again, what was she doing? Her body seemed to want to fold in on itself, and he finally decided to let her legs go free. Half expecting a sudden struggle again, he was rather surprised to see that all she did was bring her knees to rest her forehead against.

It was only when he smelled the salt and the strange smell that changing emotions made that he realized what she was doing. It made it completely clear when a large hiccupped sob tore from her and she shuddered.

He shifted his grip on her, worried now. …She wasn't supposed to start crying again. She was supposed to be alright. What was she doing, crying over it? But he couldn't be mad at her. She was still scared and upset, that much he could smell at least. He snorted to himself. He was being stupid too. He had expected her to just recover that quickly when he had already known that she never bounced back as quickly as he did. It often took weeks for her to give up being mad at someone for something so seemingly trivial as a single piece of toast from breakfast. Granted, he wouldn't have been happy either… but it took Kris double the amount of time needed to forgive and forget. And this was something far more serious than toast.

He arranged himself so that his tail was wrapped around her waist, and his chin rested on top of her head. He purred again, hoping to distract her, or at the very least calm her down until she _could_ be distracted. She sobbed again, and made tiny gasping breathes for air. He could feel the tears drip onto his arms, but made no move to brush them off. He exhaled slowly, moving his arms to rest more around her waist and moving his tail to pat softly at her own, which lay lifelessly on the mattress. He nuzzled at her hair, then the back of her neck, purring all the while, until finally, tentatively, brushing his lips against her ear.

She hiccupped and whined and mewled like an infant, but he waited until there was a pause to speak.

"Why're ya crying?"

He heard her choke on another sob before she shivered again and answered.

"How can you?..." she started, her voice cracked from tears and prior snarling. She repressed another hiccup, jerking violently, before continuing.

"How can you still touch me? How can you… _knowing_… you _saw_…" and was unable to continue out of shame and sorrow, simply trembling and hiding her face in between her knees.

He frowned slightly. She thought that he would abandon her, would hate her or be disgusted, would stop loving her because of what she had done. And while he had been and was still shaken by her actions, to think that she would consider his affections so shallow as to be broken that easily… No. No, that was wrong. She couldn't think that, he wouldn't let her. That was wrong. He was tired of the constant doubting she did, of every mistake he made in regard to her. That was it. That would end, right now. Her sanity couldn't take anymore of it, and his patience refused to.

And the next thing Kris knew she had been pinned against the bed by a large warm body and was practically suffocating in his shirt as he nuzzled the top of her head. She tensed in surprise, contemplated a struggle, and let it die.

Purr. Nuzzle. "I _can_…" Fingers tentatively resting between her neck and shoulder, flickering back and forth between them, unsure. "…because…" A long, drawn-out masculine purr. Nuzzle. "…I love ya…" Shifting. His face came into view, done with her hair and looking straight at her, a fierce look in his eyes that seemed to be slightly desperate. "… no matter what ya do."

Wide eyes regarded his smile, his adoring eyes that were warm and so inviting. She didn't remember to breathe until, when his smile softened, and lips brushed against her forehead, her cheekbones, the corners of her mouth, and pressed lightly against her own; only then did she remember to breathe and gasped.

The fingers that had been playing along her neck trailed down to her shoulders and gripped them tightly, and a flash of panic shot through their owner. No, no, don't let her be afraid of me, please, let her respond, oh god, please, don't let her cry again…

By the time he pulled back to gauge her reaction, they were both shaking uncontrollably and both close to tears again.

And, as usual, she was the first to break.

"Oh, _god_," she sobbed out, and flung her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck. And it was all she repeated, over and over, mantra-like until the tears running down her throat made it raw and she could no longer say it comfortably. And both of them were quiet for the longest time.

But when the angry voice in the back of his head told him _again_ that it wouldn't do to have a broken mate, not at all, he agreed and crooned comfortingly at Kris. And it shut up after that.

"Hey, Kris-chan," he whispered, pulling back a little to look at her. She blinked up at his face, her own streaked with tears still, though their flow had slowed down.

"Ya don't have to say it back if ya don't want to," he continued. "But… ya can't hide it from me. I already knew your answer anyways." And he grinned at her like everything was alright with the world.

She blinked disbelievingly up at him for a moment, then started laughing. Relief tingled all the way down to their feet and pooled there. There was only so much stress one could take, and they had reached and maintained their limits long ago. It was like some kind of strange blessing to be able to let it go. The only thing she could think was 'Oh god. He loves me. He…' and could never finish the thought. He had told her that once before, that was true. But, to think that it was so deep that he would still love her after seeing her covered in gore and after all that… what sane person would love a Sinner? A Fallen Angel? A blood-spattered Saiyan girl who had never been mentally stable, who could never interact normally, with normal people? What kind of moron was stupid enough to love her?

_ Her_ moron, apparently.

And she let go of him to wipe the tears off of her face. Giving her a kiss on the forehead, Ranu rolled off of her and sat up. The loss of contact made them both shiver.

"S-so…" Ranu started. She sat up as well and looked at him. He smiled at the helpless look on her face. It made her look cuter. Kris glanced away and fidgeted.

"You hungry?"

She blinked and looked back at him. That was all he was going to say? Ask her if she was hungry?

She nodded and he grinned. He started to move off of the bed gingerly, remembering his previous soreness. It didn't go unnoticed by Kris.

She scowled and lunged forward, catching him by the waist and pulling him back, growling.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

She growled louder and clung to him from behind. He was injured and trying to move? No, that wouldn't do. If he hurt, he shouldn't be moving around. She frowned and loosened her grip on him enough so that he turned to look at her questioningly.

"What is it?" he asked. She frowned more deeply.

"… You're _hurt_." She said accusingly. He looked concerned for a moment.

"I'm just a little sore, that's all. I was laying in that bed for too long and my muscles need to remember how to work. I gotta get up Kris-chan."

She scowled again and clung to him tighter.

"No."

"Kris-chan…"

"I don't wanna!"

He sighed. Thinking for a moment, he rubbed the arms wrapped around his waist gently and purred. Feeling the arms loosen again while their owner snuggled against his back, he smirked a little. Perfect.

"Please, Kris? Just for a little while. I'm hungry. I promise I won't hurt myself, okay? Please?" If there was one thing he had learned, it was to not push her when she's being stubborn. It only made her resist more and ended up draining him. Simply buttering her up and acting pathetic usually worked well enough.

She frowned deeply and held tighter for a moment, before releasing him. He smiled at her, and she thought it nearly blinded her, then shifted so that he slid off the bed and stood up, stretching happily. He glanced at Kris and saw her sitting on the bed, looking rather lost. And while it _did_ look a bit cute in some way, it didn't quite fit her. That look didn't belong to Kris.

He held out his hand to her to help her out of bed and smiled charmingly.

"Come on!" he chirped.

Kris's eyes widened slightly.

_ Ranu__ was holding his hand out, smiling and happy, and light seemed to pour over him and love him like he was the sun's own beloved child._

_ "Come on!"_

She shivered and stared at his hand. Could she? Could she really stand it if she made this jump? If by doing this, by moving forward instead of being stuck where she had been forever, would somehow cause even more trouble? She swallowed and lifted her hand up slightly, trembling. And what if, by doing this, she was trying to shove her past under a mental carpet, until someone unburied it again? What if she were still being punished for her sin, and by taking the hand of someone so pure she was only inviting more torment?

Her hand stretched out a bit more, unsteadily, and still shaking. And what if, by some ungodly twist, she managed to taint Ranu too? She had come dangerously close, she knew. This entire thing had pushed him to the limits of his saintliness, almost pushed his mind to break and become little better than what she had become while slaughtering. What if by managing to move forward, she would damage Ranu worse than she already had?

Her hand paused, directly above his own. He didn't move at all, save when she glanced up at his face. Then, he smiled gently and looked back at her with a gaze that could only be described as loving. Something snapped forcefully in Kris's mind and she smiled back as she gripped his hand tightly.

He grinned, relieved, and swung her off the bed with one arm and continued to hold onto her hand as they walked out the door and toward the kitchen.

_ Angel floated above a broken Sinner, hand outstretched, light spreading from every pore of its body. Sinner looked up from the decaying mass of Hell and slowly took Angel's hand. Angel smiled and beat its wings, pulling Sinner out of its broken Hell and bathing it in Light. Sinner smiled and touched Angel's wings, surprised when they didn't blacken at its touch. Angel simply smiled and kissed Sinner full on the lips._


End file.
